A 17-year-old girl was killed after a young man armed with a sword attacked students at a school in the city of Fagersta in central Sweden, police have confirmed. Three other people were wounded in the attack, which took place Friday afternoon during school hours at the Brinell school.
Among the wounded were two boys, ages 12 and 17, who suffered light injuries. A third victim, also under the age of 18, likewise sustained light injuries and was released from the hospital.
An 18-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack. Prosecutors ordered his detention on suspicion of murder and several counts of attempted murder.
Swedish police are investigating whether the suspect was a member of online communities that promote school violence. A police source said investigators are examining whether a TikTok account that posted an image of a sword roughly 20 minutes before the attack belonged to the suspect. According to the newspaper Dagens Nyheter, the image appeared to have been taken in a school bathroom.
Before the image was removed Friday, the account, which had been opened about a month earlier, included videos referencing two mass violence incidents in Sweden and far-right mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011.
One of the videos referenced a 2015 attack in which a masked man armed with a sword murdered a teaching assistant and two children at a school in the city of Trollhättan in western Sweden. Police shot and killed the attacker at the scene. "Investigators are examining various online communities that may have encouraged the suspect to carry out the attack," a police source said.
Several party leaders canceled speeches planned for Saturday and paused campaigning ahead of Sweden's general election on September 13. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and opposition leader Magdalena Andersson traveled to Fagersta to console the victim's family and visit the wounded. "What must never happen again has happened again," Kristersson told reporters. "Our thoughts are, first and foremost, with the families who have been so severely affected."
The deadliest mass shooting in Swedish history took place in February 2025 at a school in the city of Örebro in south-central Sweden, where a gunman killed ten people before taking his own life.
On Saturday, police clarified that the suspect in the Fagersta attack was not shot, contradicting a report they had issued Friday. "A service weapon was used, but the perpetrator was not injured during the arrest and did not require medical treatment," a police spokesperson told the newspaper Aftonbladet.
