TROLLHATTAN, Sweden — Hundreds of people lit candles Friday in the yard of a Swedish school where police said a 21-year-old masked man with a sword and a knife went on a rampage a day earlier, stabbing two to death and seriously wounding two others before being shot by police.
Police described the Thursday attack as a carefully organized, racist hate crime by a young man who methodically selected his victims in Trollhattan’s Kronan school, where most of the students are foreign-born.
The Scandinavian nation of 10 million, known for its welcoming attitude toward migrants, was shocked by the violence in the southern industrial town near Sweden’s second largest city, Goteborg.
“This is a black day for Sweden,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said of the country’s deadliest school attack.
Although violent crime is relatively rare in Sweden, there has been a spate of arson attacks on asylum centers in recent weeks as an influx of refugees has surged. Immigration officials estimate some 190,000 asylum-seekers will arrive this year, second only to Germany in Western Europe.
Nour Shilbaya, an 18-year-old former student at the school, took part in the candlelight vigil.
“I’ve been living here my whole life. It feels so hard to see all of this happening because it feels like a movie,” she said. “You can’t imagine that it is real.”
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