Sweden gun attack leaves three dead

STOCKHOLM: A shootout at a Swedish hair salon on Tuesday left at least three people dead in an eruption of violence that has heightened nerves over gun violence in the Scandinavian nation, police and media reports said.

The shooting erupted in the centre of Uppsala a day before a spring festival which draws more than 100,000 people to the city some 60-kms north of Stockholm. Police, who confirmed three dead, said attack was staged by a masked gunman. Media reports said he escaped on a scooter after the early evening shootout.

Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer called the killings “extremely serious” but police would not say if it was the latest episode in a long running war between gangs. Sweden is also still recovering from its worst mass shooting in February.

“We have three people confirmed dead, but we have not confirmed their identities yet,” police spokesman Magnus Jansson Klarin told AFP. “We received reports of a masked person on an electric scooter, we are looking into those reports,” he said. Swedish media said witnesses heard several shots at a hair salon in the centre of the city.

“It´s normally a quiet neighbourhood, I do my shopping here every day,” Elias Sundgren, a student at the local university, told AFP. The shooting came a day before Uppsala holds the Valborg festival to mark the start of spring. While police sealed off the streets around the hair salon -- and a drone flew oveerhead -- they sought to reassure the huge number of visitors expected.