School Climate & Safety

Two Dead, Two Wounded in Stabbing Attack at Swedish School

By Evie Blad — October 22, 2015 1 min read
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A teacher and a student died and two others were seriously injured when a masked man wielding swords or knives (it’s not yet clear which) carried out an attack at a school in Trollhattan, Sweden, on Thursday.

The man, believed to be in his 20s, was killed after police responded to the scene and shot him, CNN reports.

Students at the school, which serves primary and middle grades, initially believed the attack was a prank. The Associated Press reports that some students thought the attacker’s clothing had something to do with Halloween.

School attacks in the United States, typically carried out with guns, quickly lead to discussions of gun laws. School attacks in other countries, even those carried out with other sorts of weapons, frequently lead to international policy comparisons.

CNN reports:

Sweden has laws regulating gun ownership. The gunpolicy.org website, which works to prevent gun injuries, estimates that the rate of gun ownership in the country, both legal and illegal, is 31.61 firearms per 100 people. As a comparison, the number of guns per 100 people in the U.S. is reported by the site to be 101."

Photo: People light candles and lay flower tributes Thursday afternoon outside the school in Trollhattan, Sweden, where a masked man stabbed four people. --Adam Ihse/TT via AP


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A version of this news article first appeared in the Rules for Engagement blog.