Inside Sweden’s descent into ultra-violence where drug gangs carry out 30 bombings a MONTH in fight for supremacy

AS life drained from his bullet-scarred body, nursing assistant Salim Iskef Facetimed his fiancée to speak to her for the last time. Sobbing Kareen Elia, 24, revealed: “He said he loved me so much. I can’t describe the feelings. We were supposed to get married on July 25.”. The pair had fled Syria’s brutal war to find sanctuary in Sweden, a land once renowned as a peace- loving bastion of liberalism.

Now, alongside nine other innocents, Salim, 28, lay dead in a college campus after the Scandinavian nation’s worst-ever gun massacre. Visiting the shrine of candles and floral tributes outside the crime scene this week, the country’s visibly upset Queen Silvia asked: “Where did the beautiful Sweden go?”. It’s a heartfelt sentiment many of her citizens share. The land that spawned the joyful music of Abba and dependable brands Volvo and Ikea has now become a byword for ultra-violence.

More than 30 bombings rocked the country last month alone, mostly around capital Stockholm as ruthless drug gangs vied for supremacy. Many of those involved are baby-faced hoodlums killing for cash and misplaced street credibility. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson admitted last month: “We don’t have control over the wave of violence.”. And the Swedish underworld is exporting its mayhem. In a four-month period last year at least 25 young Swedes on suspected contract-killing or bombing missions were arrested in neighbouring Denmark.

Once-sedate Sweden faced more bloodshed last week when anti-Islam campaigner Salwan Momika, 38, was live-streaming on TikTok when an assassin gunned him down in ­Sodertalje, near Stockholm. Sweden’s security services are probing whether the murder of the Iraqi refugee, who had caused ­outrage by burning pages from the Koran, was linked to another ­country. Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch described Momika’s slaying as “a threat to our free democracy”.

Despite its record as a “humanitarian superpower”, Sweden has struggled to integrate the numbers of migrants who flocked to its shores. Some from second or third generation immigrant backgrounds felt excluded from mainstream society and drifted into drugs and crime. Yet the gunman in Orebro this week was a homegrown white Swede whose licence for his four hunting firearms was issued by the police.

Dressed in camo gear and armed to the teeth, unemployed “loner” Rickard Andersson, 35, fired what appeared to be smoke grenades as he pitilessly stalked his victims through Campus Risbergska. The 130 cops who stormed the school grounds faced an “inferno”. Police chief Lars Wiren revealed: “They were met by dead and injured people, screams and smoke.”. One student rescued by officers, Andreas Sundling, 28, said: “It was crazy — there was blood everywhere.”.

I think it was a racially motivated attack. He was mentally ill and was still allowed a gun licence. Last night police revealed the victims were seven women and three men ranging in age from 28 to 68. Reportedly, they include an Eritrean mother, a middle-aged Iranian woman and a Syrian dad-of-two. Police have yet to confirm a motive for the frenzied shooting at a campus attended by many migrants taking adult education classes.

Yet some I spoke to in the grieving city of Orebro this week believe that racism lay behind the slayings. Abdullah Al-tameemi told me how he had left the school minutes before Andersson struck but that one of his friends was gunned down. Outside his home — on the outskirts of the medieval university city 125 miles west of Stockholm — Abdullah choked back tears as he said: “For me, it was racist.

“There’s four or five schools in the area but he chose this one.”. Iraq-born Abdullah, 25, points out that migrants at the college were “trying to educate ourselves so we can contribute to society”. He added: “The authorities are saying it’s not linked to terrorism but when a man with a gun shoots ten people who were simply there to study then it’s terrorism.”. Chilling videos captured by those trapped in the school suggest Andersson methodically hunted down his victims, with bursts of gunfire followed by deathly silence.

In one clip, student Hashem Shams cowers in a toilet while the gunshots get closer and closer. Swedish channel TV4, which made an audio analysis of the video, says a voice shouts: “You should leave Europe”. Police haven’t confirmed the claim. Mass murderer Andersson — born Jonas Rickard Simon before changing his name eight years ago — had never been in trouble with the law. A native of Orebro, his old classmates describe him as being “sociable” and “happy” at primary and middle school.