Stockholm police make terror arrest: Injured man 'confesses that he drove hijacked lorry into shoppers' killing four
WARNING - GRAPHIC CONTENT: The man arrested by police in north Stockholm has reportedly confessed to carrying out the truck attack
VIDEO SHOWS TRUCK PLOUGHING THROUGH STOCKHOLM STREET
Swedish police have arrested a man in north Stockholm who has confessed to carrying out a deadly truck attack in the centre of the city, local media reports.
The man has some light injuries and said he was responsible for the attack, Reuters reported quoting local news outlet Aftonbladet.
Swedish police said they had arrested one person in connection with the attack, saying he resembled the man in CCTV images released.
"We went public with information and a picture of a person that we were interested in," regional police official Jan Evensson told a news conference.
"The person who is arrested resembles that description which means we have particular interest in him in regard to the ongoing investigation."
Authorities had been hunting a terrorist ringleader and any associates after today's attack in Stockholm where a truck rammed into a large crowd of people in a busy shopping district.
Four people are confirmed dead and 15 adults and children injured, nine seriously, in the suspected terror attack.
Detectives were also interviewing two people in relation to the attack in the shopping district of Drottninggatan in the Swedish capital.
However, it was unclear if they were two people reportedly apprehended in the chaos after the attack when there were reports of a shootout at the scene.
Police spokesman Lars Bystrom said earlier: “I can confirm that we have taken in two people for questioning, but that does not necessary means that they are suspects.
“We want to talk to everybody who knows anything about this and sometimes it’s better to talk at the police station than place of event.”
Witnesses say the large vehicle - which is thought to be stolen - drove into people in the busy shopping strip.
Footage from the scene shows terrified shoppers fleeing in terror.
Unconfirmed reports had claimed three armed men jumped out of the truck with two either arrested or shot by police.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said everything indicated the crash was a terrorist attack.
The city’s subway network was shut down minutes after the attack and armed police were also been seen storming Stockholm Central Station.
It comes after trucks were used in terror attacks in Nice and Berlin last year.
Footage from the scene shows hundreds of people fleeing in terror when the truck crashed into the shoppers at 1.53pm UK time.
The lorry was stolen as the driver made a delivery nearby shortly before the attack.
Swedish brewery company Spendrups has confirmed it owns the truck which it says was making a restaurant delivery just north of the attack site.
It was just before 3pm when the driver started unloading beer barrels at a restaurant, located in the streets around the Adolf Fredriks Church.
The driver was about to unload the barrels to a restaurant when a masked man jumped into the car and drove it away, the company has told local media.
At a press conference national police commissioner Dan Eliasson said: "A truck was driven into Ahlen's department store on Drottninggatan.
"There are many people injured. We can't confirm numbers of injuries or deaths at this press conference. The medical authorities will confirm that."
SMOKE BILLOWS FROM STOCKHOLM SHOPPING CENTRE AS TRUCK RAMMED INTO CROWD
Senior police officer Mats Lofving said: "We don't know whether this incident is isolated or whether we can expect more.
"We have police positioned at several strategic places with a particular risk threat."
Mr Lofving showed pictures of a man they want to speak to, urging anyone with information to get in touch and saying: "For us it's important to get in touch with this person."
Earlier, two people were seen being taken away by Swedish police earlier today in the chaos following the attack.
MAN ARRESTED FOLLOWING STOCKHOLM 'TERROR ATTACK'
One person, wearing blue jeans, was bundled to the floor on a busy street by four officers, who then sat on him and held his arms behind his back.
Shocked bystanders then watched as a second man was handcuffed and led away.
Witnesses described hearing people screaming and seeing badly injured people lying in the street.
Horrific images from the scene show pools of blood on the pavement.
The truck used in the attack could be seen sticking out of the side of a department store.
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Stockholm Terror Attack
Eyewitness Helena Reynis told Mirror Online: "I was in Zara at Drottninggatan with my friend, we are about to walk out the store and then we hear people scream and run against us into the store and then we see the truck passing us in such high speed.
"We run back into the store to the back and everyone is screaming. Everyone just got stiff but still trying to find a way out the back. Then we hear some noise again and then people start screaming again and panicking even more.
AFTERMATH OF TRUCK DISASTER IN STOCKHOLM
"Everyone starts running out through the back entrance of Zara to Hötorget. People are running into everyone so my purse string even broke from all the chaos.
"Then we decide to try to run as far away from the street Drottninggatan and we run as far and as fast as we can towards Sveavägen where we find a bus that takes us to my brother."
Photographer Annevi Petersson was in one of the stores on Drottninggatan when she heard screaming coming from outside.
She said: "I was in a store at Drootninggatan where the truck passed by. I had just stepped into a fitting room, heard the noise and the screams, ran out and saw people laying on the street.
PEDESTRIANS FLEE TRUCK IN STOCKHOLM
"I saw a woman had a partly severed foot. People screaming in panic, others ran. I saw people laying bloody on the street and got out of there."
A British tourist was also caught up in the attack and described seeing "lifeless bodies" covered with towels at the scene.
Reporter Harriet Rose-Gale, 26, was having lunch metres away from the spot where a truck ploughed into pedestrians in the Swedish capital.
Harriet, of Marlborough, Wiltshire, described scenes of panic as dozens of emergency vehicles flooded the streets.
She said: "We were literally 100 or 200m away having lunch when a couple of police cars went by followed by about 20-30 emergency vehicles continuously.
"I walked up the road and we could just see a lorry, a truck, and what we could only assume was a lifeless body in front of it.
"It had a peach or orange towel covering it and there was another body with a white sheet in the middle of the road.
"We were trying to find out what happened but there was so much panic because of what's just happened in London. Everyone is on high alert.
"There were crowds of people flooding along the street to get away and lots of police officers with guns and lots and lots of sirens.
"There has been a few people walking past with blankets and there is a big cordon around the street."
Eyewitness Jan Granroth said: "We stood inside a shoe store, and we heard no noise, and so people start screaming.
"So I look out at the store, so I see a huge truck slams into the wall opposite."
Another witnesses, called Dimitris said the truck came out of nowhere.
They reportedly told the local news site: "I went to the main street when a big truck came out of nowhere.
"It got out of control. I saw at least two being run over.
"I ran as fast as I could from there."
It is thought the truck was stolen earlier in the day. Swedish police have issued a warning to avoid the city centre.
The crash is close to the scene of a terror attack in 2010 when Taimour Abdulwahab, a Swedish citizen who lived in Luton, blew himself up.
The terrorist, who police concluded acted alone, died on December 11 2010 in the Bryggargatan area. No-one else was killed.
Abdulwahab rigged an Audi car with explosives in the hope that the blast would drive people to Drottninggatan, a busy shopping street, where he was waiting to set off two more devices strapped to his chest and back.
The car bomb never went off and, after setting fire to the Audi, he was unable to detonate the other two explosives as planned.
He made his way down a side street off Drottninggatan and, in an apparent attempt to fix the faulty trigger up his sleeve, set off the bomb on the front of his body, killing only himself.
Sweden's national rail company SJ said all trains to and from Stockholm's central station would be cancelled for the rest of the day as a result of the deadly truck attack in the city.
"No SJ trains will go either to or from Stockholm Central for the rest of the day," SJ said in a statement.
The mayor of London, where five people were killed in a vehicle and knife attack last month, says the British capital "stands united with Stockholm" after Friday's deadly truck crash.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan says it appears Sweden has "seen a despicable act of terrorism aimed at harming innocent people and attacking our shared values of democracy, freedom, justice and tolerance."
He says Londoners know what it is to suffer from terrorism, and "we share a steely determination with the people of Stockholm that we will never allow terrorists to succeed.".
The European Union and other countries across the continent also offered Sweden support and solidarity.
"An attack on any of our member states is an attack on us all," said President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker.
"One of Europe's most vibrant and colourful cities appears to have been struck by those wishing it - and our very way of life - harm.
"We stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with the people of Sweden and the Swedish authorities can count on the European Commission to support them in any which way we can."
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