One person has been taken into custody after the attack at a high school in Fagersta, local authorities said.
A person armed with a sword has injured at least three people in an attack at a school in central Sweden,.
“An assailant armed with a sword has entered Brinellskolan [school] and wounded several people,” the Fagersta municipality said in a statement on Friday, adding that the suspect had been detained by police.
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Jonas Cederberg, director of health and medical services for the Vastmanland county authority, told news agencies that two people – boys aged 12 and 17 – had arrived for treatment and were “seriously injured”, with a third injured person on the way.
The school has some 450 students aged 16 to 20, the Reuters news agency reported.
Swedish police said in an earlier statement that they received a call “regarding a case of ongoing deadly violence at a school in Fagersta” just after 2pm local time (12:00 GMT). Officers then rushed to the scene.
Public broadcaster SVT said ambulances, police cars and a police helicopter were outside the school in the small city of about 12,000 people.
“Police are continuing to work at the scene with a number of different resources,” the police statement said. “The public is urged to respect the roadblocks and listen to police instructions.”
Police spokesman Pelle Vamstad, quoted by the TT news agency, said authorities would be looking for camera footage that could be used in the preliminary investigation.
‘We do not yet know what lies behind the act’
Fagersta municipality did not specify the number of wounded but said police were searching the school and that other schools in the area had been locked down.
Aftonbladet newspaper reported that a person wielding a machete had been shot in the leg by police. This report could not immediately be confirmed.
“A serious incident has occurred today in Fagersta at a school, right after the summer break,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a statement on X after the attack.
“We do not yet know what lies behind the act, but we know that the police are working very intensively.”
Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said the government was closely following the situation.
“The police are on site and are working very intensively on the incident. The government is in close contact with the police and is monitoring developments on an ongoing basis,” he said.
Sweden has seen some high-profile attacks at educational institutions.
In February 2025, a 35-year-old man killed 10 people at an adult education centre in Orebro – Sweden’s worst mass shooting. Police said it was motivated by the killer’s wish to end his life because of financial and psychological woes.
In March 2022, an 18-year-old student fatally stabbed two teachers at a secondary school in the southern city of Malmo.
And in October 2015, three people were killed in a racially motivated attack at a school in the western town of Trollhattan by a sword-wielding assailant who was killed by police.
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