Sweden shooting: Three dead in mass firing incident at hair salon

Three people were killed while several were injured in a shooting incident in Sweden’s eastern city of Uppsala on Tuesday (Apr 29). Police said that multiple people sustained injuries that suggest gunshot wounds after loud bangs were heard.

In a statement, police said they received several calls from people reporting of shots fired in the centre of Uppsala, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the capital Stockholm, where "a certain number of people have been found with wounds that could have resulted from a shooting."

"Three people are confirmed deceased following a shooting," police said in a statement, adding they had opened a murder investigation.

A large area of the city was cordoned off and an investigation is underway.

According to the SVT public television report, the witnesses said a suspect had fled on a scooter. The shots were fired inside a hair salon, Broadcaster TV4 said.

In recent years, the Nordic country has struggled to rein in shootings and bombings linked to score-settling between rival criminal groups. Often, the perpetrators hired as contract killers are young teens under the age of 15, which is the age of criminal responsibility in Sweden.

In January, Swedish police said that the number of shooting incidents had declined from the past year for the second year in a row, In 2024, 296 shootings were reported in the country -- a decline of 20 per cent compare to that in 2023.