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Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson summoned the head of Sweden’s armed forces and the state’s police chief to a meeting to be held Friday, as a wave of gang violence grips the country.
“We’re going to hunt down the gangs and we’re going to defeat them,” Kristersson said during a televised address on Thursday evening.
A surge in gang-related violence has shaken Sweden over the past few weeks, leaving 11 people dead this month alone. On Thursday, two men were shot in separate incidents close to Stockholm, while a 25-year-old woman was killed in a bomb attack near Uppsala.
“It is a difficult time for Sweden,” Kristersson said, adding that the violence is affecting “more and more children and completely innocent people.”
“I cannot stress enough how serious the situation is,” he said. “Sweden has never seen anything like this before. No other country in Europe sees anything like it.”
Kristersson blamed an “irresponsible immigration policy” and “failed integration,” along with “political naivety,” for the rise of gang violence, but said Sweden will now take a different approach to tackle the issue.
On Friday, the prime minister will meet with the armed forces’ commander-in-chief and the country’s police commissioner to discuss how the army and the police can work together.
“Everything is on the table, both within the current law, and the laws that need to be changed quickly,” Kristersson said.
Kristersson added that Sweden will seek to introduce further measures, including more surveillance, search zones and custodial sentences.
On Thursday, Sweden’s former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson called for the current government to summon the army to handle the violence. In an interview with Swedish outlet Dagens Nyheter, head of the armed forces Micael Bydén had said he was ready to support and work with the police forces.
