http://www.thelocal.se/20150815/arson-attack-on-swedish-child-refugee-centre
Two arson attempts on Swedish refugee centres
TT/The Local · 16 Aug 2015, 04:59
Published: 15 Aug 2015 16:05 GMT+02:00
Updated: 16 Aug 2015 04:59 GMT+02:00
The asylum centre in Arboga, where two men linked to the Ikea murders
lived, was evacuated early on Saturday morning when two bags of
flammable liquid were found nearby. The same night a centre for
unaccompanied refugee children and young people in Värnamo was the
target of an arson attack.
Following a tip-off, police found two unknown objects in the vicinity
of the Arboga accommodation.
“Late on Friday night they found the first object and the second some
time after midnight,” said Thomas Gustafsson, police spokesman in
Västmanland.
A large area was cordoned off and bomb technicians from Stockholm were called.
“As a precaution it was decided that the accommodation would be
evacuated,” Gustafsson told the Swedish TT news agency.
Staff from the Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket) and Arboga
municipality removed the 83 residents and took them to a local church.
Bomb technicians found that the objects consisted of two sacks of
flammable liquid. Police have launched a preliminary investigation.
Passers-by managed to extinguish the fire at a separate centre in
Värnamo before the emergency services arrived. Twenty children and
young people, between the ages of 15 to 21, were living there. Nobody
was hurt.
“It was a resourceful intervention by passers-by that ensured the fire
was stopped early,” said a police spokesman.
“We have undertaken an investigation and can conclude that the fire
was not an accident. It has been classified as arson although we do
not yet have any suspects.”
The attacks come just five days after a mother and her adult son were
stabbed to death at an Ikea store in the central town of Västerås. Two
men from Eritrea were arrested with one admitting the attack and
another denying all involvement.
Earlier this month two EU migrants were injured and four caravans
burned when a camping site in Gothenburg was attacked.
Violence against ethnic minorities is growing in Sweden with other
high profile cases in recent months including shots fired at two
homeless EU migrants sleeping in a car in Boden in northern Sweden and
two migrants assaulted in central Stockholm by a passerby who threw
acid at them.
Received on Sun Aug 16 2015 - 11:50:07 EDT