A sword-wielding attacker has wounded several people at a high school in central Sweden, prompting a major emergency response and local school lockdowns before police shot and detained the suspect.
The assault occurred on Friday at Brinellskolan, located in the Fagersta municipality. Local authorities confirmed the attack in a statement, noting that an assailant armed with a sword entered the school and caused multiple injuries. While the municipality did not specify the exact number of victims, police immediately began searching the premises and placed other schools in the surrounding area on lockdown as a precaution.
Sweden's local media, including the newspaper Aftonbladet, reported that the suspect, who was carrying a machete, was shot in the leg by responding officers. Public broadcaster SVT reported a heavy emergency presence outside the school, with ambulances, police vehicles, and a police helicopter arriving in the small city of approximately 12,000 residents.
Sweden has experienced several high-profile attacks at educational institutions in recent years. In February 2025, a 35-year-old man killed 10 people at an adult education center in Orebro, marking the country's worst mass shooting. Investigators determined that the killer was motivated by a desire to end his own life due to financial and psychological struggles.
Prior to that, in March 2022, an 18-year-old student stabbed and killed two teachers at a secondary school in the southern city of Malmo. In October 2015, a sword-wielding attacker killed three people in a racially motivated assault at a school in the western town of Trollhattan before being fatally shot by police.
