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Sword-wielding man kills two at Swedish school

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A masked sword-wielding man has killed at least two people and wounded some others at a school in Sweden before being shot by police.

The casualties were caused after the man broke into a school for children and teens aged between six and 15 in the southwestern town of Trollhattan, near Goteborg, Sweden’s second-largest city, on Thursday morning.

“One of the four people brought to hospital has died,” Nicklas Claesson, a hospital spokesman, said.

Swedish media reports said the fatality was a young male student. Health authorities had earlier confirmed that a teacher died at the scene.

Another teacher and two boys, aged 11 and 15, were also seriously wounded.

Law enforcement officials said police shot the assailant, who was reportedly in his 20s, at the scene.

Police investigator Thord Haraldsson also announced the attacker has succumbed to the injuries he sustained in the shooting.

No information has been disclosed about the masked man, while his motive behind the attack was not immediately clear.

“It is a terrible tragedy, and the people are very anxious,” a police spokesman told media.

Students leave a primary and middle school in Trollhattan, southwestern Sweden, following an attack on October 22, 2015. © AFP

 

A student, who witnessed the attack, said that school children initially thought it was a prank.

“When we first saw him, we thought it was a joke. He was wearing a mask and black clothes and (carrying) a long sword. Some students wanted to take their picture with him and feel the sword,” said the student, whose name was not mentioned in the reports.

The students fled as the assailant went from classroom to classroom looking for victims, the witness added.

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