Swedish police name 17-year-old girl as victim in school sword attack

Swedish police revealed that a 17-year-old female student was the fatal victim in a sword attack at a high school where widespread tributes were paid Saturday.

Flowers and candles were left outside the Brinell school in Fagersta where Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and opposition leader Magdalena Adersson went on Saturday morning to honour the dead student and three wounded victims.

The 18-year-old attacker entered the school on Friday afternoon -- just days after the school had resumed from its summer break. He has been detained by police after being shot during his arrest.

"The person killed in this incident is a young 17-year-old female. Her family has been informed," police said on their website without giving any other identity details.

Minnea, a Brinell student who also went to honour the victims on Saturday, told the SVT broadcaster: "It's terrible to think that someone you sat at the same table with, someone you talked to, is suddenly dead."

Local authorities said that two boys aged 12 and 17 were seriously wounded in the attack and one had required emergency surgery. Authorities have not given details on the third person injured.

Local police chief Tommy Alriksson told reporters on Friday that investigators were seeking a motive for the latest violence to shock Sweden. But few details have emerged about the attacker.

SVT reported that the perpetrator had a previous assault conviction and wore a helmet and carried a sword -- reminiscent of an 2015 school attack in the western town of Trollhattan in which a 21-year-old killed three people in a racially motivated attack.

Media said a TikTok account belonging to the youth was being investigated. The account has been taken down.

AFP viewed the account before it was taken down and it had several videos referencing school attacks. The last update showed a photo of a sword.

"The police investigation is proceeding at full speed," police added in their statement on Saturday.

"Numerous investigative measures have been carried out, and inquiries are continuing in order to establish the sequence of events as precisely as possible."

Nellie Strandberg, a 16-year-old Brinell student, said she was on her way to the school's library when the assailant entered the institution.

"We were just going to collect some things and get ready for Monday. Then I see I guy who's bloody all down his back," she told Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

Sweden has suffered other attacks at educational institutions. In February 2025, a 35-year-old man killed 10 people at an adult education centre in Orebro. In March 2022, an 18-year-old student stabbed two teachers to death at a secondary school in the southern city of Malmo.