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Stockholm, Sweden
A teenager fired shots outside the offices of Israeli tech firm Elbit Systems, a police officer said. The 13-year-old boy was sitting in a police station in central Gothenburg last Thursday, on alleged charges of attempted murder and weapons offence.
“He was basically caught in the act,” said police spokesman August Brandt, who said the shots were being investigated as an “attempted murder and weapons offence”.
In the firing, nobody was hurt, and there is not much information on why a child might have opened fire outside an Israeli company that sells defence and homeland security solutions, according to a BBC report.
However, this was not the only such incident that happened this year. There have been several similar incidents.
Israeli embassies attacked in Sweden and Denmark
Earlier this month, Israeli embassies were targeted in Sweden and Denmark. Nobody was hurt in the attacks.
Initially, there was a shooting outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm.
Following this, two teenagers, aged 16 and 19, were arrested in Copenhagen after hand grenades were detonated near the Israeli embassy.
Sweden's security service Sapo said that Iran may have been involved in the attacks. Sapo head of operations Fredrik Hallstrom said Tehran’s involvement was an “objective hypothesis”.
A month before that, Sapo accused Iran of recruiting Swedish gang members to carry out attacks on Israeli or Jewish interests.
However, Iran's foreign ministry condemned the allegations, calling them "unfounded and biased” and based on what it labelled misinformation emanating from Israel.
According to reports, many of the suspects have been teenagers.
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Diamant Salihu, an investigative crime journalist with Swedish public service television SVT, said, "To understand why we see young Swedish teenagers attacking Israeli companies and embassies, we need to first acknowledge that we have had an ongoing gang conflict here in Sweden for a long time."
According to a police report published earlier this year, an estimated 14,000 people in Sweden have been caught up in criminal gangs, and another 48,000 people are said to be connected to them.
(With inputs from agencies)