Stockholm reels from terror attack

My family were two streets away from Drottninggatan when the hijacked truck was driven into pedestrians this afternoon. It’s the busiest shopping street in Stockholm, all the busier with the Easter holidays approaching. The lorry drove at speed down Drottninggatan then smashed into the entrance of Åhléns, the biggest department store in the city. The city is in lockdown, its MPs told to stay in parliament and the underground system closed – leaving shoppers (my wife included) stranded in town, checking their phones and trying to find out what’s going on. Three have been reported dead so far, with ten seriously injured.

After the truck and car attacks in Nice, Berlin and Westminster everyone’s first thought is that Stockholm is the latest victim of the jihadist menace. This is not necessarily the case: while Sweden is famously peaceful it does see occasional spectacular acts of violence. Olof Palme, a Prime Minister, was shot dead in 1986 and Anna Lindh, a foreign secretary, was fatally stabbed in a department just down from Åhléns in 2003.