Swedish police said Thursday they met a scene resembling "an inferno" when they arrived at the scene of country's worst mass shooting that left 10 dead plus the gunman. Regional police chief Lars Wiren said officers sent to the adult education centre in Orebro, west of Stockholm, told reporters they were faced with "dead people, injured people, screams and smoke". Anna Bergkvist, who is heading the investigation, said they were still working to pin down a motive for Tuesday's massacre, which has sent shockwaves across the Nordic country.
We don't have an answer yet," she said. Broadcaster TV4 published a video filmed by a student hiding in a bathroom in which shots can be heard outside and a person can be heard shouting: "You will leave Europe! Bergkvist told AFP that there were "multiple nationalities, different genders and different ages" among those who were killed. The victims have not all been identified yet, according to police. The Syrian embassy expressed "its condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims, among them Syrians," in a post on its Facebook page late on Wednesday.
Wiren told reporters that officers got the impression that "the shooting started being directed at police when they entered the school instead of students and staff". Police found 10 empty magazines at the site and "a large amount of unused ammunition" next to the suspected gunman, who had turned the gun on himself and was dead when police reached him.
He has been identified by the Swedish press as year-old Rickard Andersson, but there has been no official confirmation of his identity. Swedish media reports painted a picture of the assailant as a local man who had been living as a recluse and was suffering from psychological problems. According to Aftonbladet newspaper, he reportedly hid his weapons in a guitar case and changed into military style garb in a school bathroom, before opening fire.
Bergkvist told reporters that police believed they knew the identity of the assailant but said they would "not confirm such information" until they had verified the identity via DNA. Police also said that several long-barrelled weapons had been recovered.
