Skip to main content

Arrest in Stockholm Truck Ramming: 'We Think He is the Driver'

Share This article

Swedish authorities are confident they have detained the man who carried out a deadly terrorist attack in Stockholm on Friday.

Sweden’s police chief Dan Eliason, said Saturday that "there is nothing that tells us that we have the wrong person."

The unidentified suspect is a 39-year-old native of Uzbekistan and someone police say was "in our files." Prosecutor Hans Ihrman said the suspect has not yet spoken to authorities and they do not know if he is a legal resident of Sweden. 

Ihrman added that the suspect could face a custody hearing before midday Tuesday or be released.

Police cannot confirm if he acted alone.

Authorities believe the man crashed a large beer truck into an upscale department store on Friday, killing at least four people and injuring 15 more.

The newspaper Expressen reported the hijacker began shooting after the crash.

Police also found what they believe is a homemade bomb in the truck. The device was found in a bag and had not been detonated,

Sweden has been criticized for an ambitious immigration program that has brought in a large number of Muslims from the Middle East and Africa.

Sweden's security service Säpo admits that more than 300 Muslims have traveled from Sweden to join terrorist groups in the Middle East and an estimated 150 have since returned.

Photos from the scene showed a large beer truck sticking out of the Ahlens department store.

Aftonbladet reported that Swedish beer maker Spendrups said one of its trucks had been hijacked earlier Friday.

"We stood inside a shoe store and heard something...and then people started to scream," witness Jan Granroth told the Aftonbladet daily. "I looked out of the store and saw a big truck."

Vehicles have become a common weapon for Muslim terrorists in extremist attacks.

Last month, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, a man drove into a crowd on London's Westminster Bridge, killing three people and injuring many others before stabbing a policeman to death. He was killed by police.

A fourth person, a woman thrown into the Thames by the force of the car attack, died from her injuries Thursday.

The Islamic State has also claimed responsibility for a truck attack that killed 86 people in Nice, France, in July during a Bastille Day festival and another truck attack that killed 12 people at a Christmas market in Berlin.

Share This article

About The Author

Dale
Hurd

Since joining CBN News, Dale has reported extensively from Western Europe, as well as China, Russia, and Central and South America. Dale also covered China's opening to capitalism in the early 1990s, as well as the Yugoslav Civil War. CBN News awarded him its Command Performance Award for his reporting from Moscow and Sarajevo. Since 9/11, Dale has reported extensively on various aspects of the global war on terror in the United States and Europe. Follow Dale on Twitter @dalehurd and "like" him at Facebook.com/DaleHurdNews.