At least two people were killed when a truck was driven into pedestrians on the busiest street in the center of Stockholm, in what appeared to be the latest use of a vehicle as a weapon of terror in Europe.
Local media reported that the truck was hijacked as it made a delivery nearby. Eyewitnesses reported it being driven at speed along Drottninggatan (Queen Street) before it crashed into the front of a department store.
Parliament and the Stockholm subway were placed in lockdown. All train services in and out of Stockholm Central Station were halted and people were evacuated, the Swedish state railway company said.
"Sweden has been attacked," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told reporters "Everything indicates this is a terror attack."
Lofven said the government was doing everything possible to help the security services. "We are thinking about the victims -- their families and friends -- and those who were injured," he said."
The Prime Minister was returning to the capital from the west of the country, his spokesman Erik Nises told CNN.
King Carl XVI Gustaf also announced he had cut short his state visit to Brazil to return home immediately in the aftermath of the attack.
Anders Thornberg, Director General of the Swedish Security Service, said a "person of interest" was being investigated by police.
The US embassy in Stockholm told US citizens to avoid the area of the attack.
The same area was hit by a failed attack in 2010. A suicide bomber died and two people were injured when his car bomb went off prematurely as he made his way towards the Drottninggatan street area, which was packed with Christmas shoppers.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker says “an attack on any of our member states is an attack on us all.’’
Source : CNN
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