A driver crashed a hijacked beer truck into an upscale department store in central Stockholm on Friday, killing at least three people, according to Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, who called the crash a terror attack. Live television footage showed smoke coming out of the upscale Ahlens department store on the city’s pedestrian Drottninggatan Street, which the truck smashed into.
People in the downtown area fled in panic, and Stockholm’s nearby Central Station for trains and the subway, a few hundred yards away, was evacuated. All trains to and from the main station were halted. Two large shopping malls in Stockholm were shut down. Broadcaster SVT said at least five people were killed in the attack while Swedish radio reported three dead, but police could not immediately confirm those reports. The country’s intelligence agency said a large number of people were wounded in the crash. “Sweden has been attacked,” Lofven said in a nationally televised press conference. “This indicates that it is an act of terror.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
