Three people were shot and wounded in violent clashes on Sunday in Norrköping, south-west of Stockholm, between security forces and demonstrators protesting against a far-right group that prides itself on burning the Koran , Swedish police said.
“The police fired several warning shots. Three people appear to have been hit by ricochets and are currently being treated in hospital,” police wrote in a statement. The three injured, whose condition is not known, are also “under arrest, suspected of a crime”, it is specified. This is the second such clash in four days in Norrkoping. The first time, the demonstrators had protested against a rally of the anti-immigration and anti-Islam movement “Hard Line”, led by the Danish-Swedish Rasmus Paludan. On Sunday, they demonstrated again with a view to another rally, which Rasmus Paludan finally gave up.
Violence in Malmö too
It is not only in Norrköping that the leader of the “Hard Line” provokes violent demonstrations. Malmö (south), the country’s third largest city, was also the scene overnight from Saturday to Sunday. Fires occurred at various locations overnight, law enforcement said in a statement. In particular, garbage cans, a bus and a car were burned, it is specified. Nearly 20 complaints, in particular for vandalism, have been filed. A few people were lightly injured, police added.
The incidents erupted after a Saturday rally of the “Hardline” movement. His gathering had been moved from a district of Landskrona to a parking lot in Malmö, the neighboring big city, in order to avoid overflows, but a car tried to break through the protective barriers. The driver was arrested.
Protests then broke out in different parts of Malmö, with stones and Molotov cocktails thrown at the police. “It calmed down around 3 a.m., there were a few fires but the violence subsided,” police spokeswoman Kim Hild told public radio SR, adding that no member of the law enforcement officers were not injured.
“Sometimes social anxiety is contagious,” Malmö police chief Petra Stenkula told the press, believing that the events of the previous days could have served as a “trigger”.
Rasmus Paludan’s tour that sets fire to the powder
Rasmus Paludan is currently organizing a tour in Sweden which has generated several clashes between the police and counter-protesters in several cities of the country in recent days. On Thursday and Friday, around 12 police officers were injured in the clashes.
Following these events, Iraqi diplomacy announced in a press release that it had summoned the Swedish charge d’affaires on Sunday. She believes that allowing far-right supporters to demonstrate wishing to burn a copy of the Koran is an act “provocative for the feelings of Muslims and offensive for what is sacred to them”.
And she warns of the “serious repercussions” of this case on “relations between Sweden and Muslims in general, whether in Muslim or Arab countries, or in Muslim communities in Europe”.
Rasmus Paludan has indicated his desire to demonstrate again in two cities in Sweden, but his rallies have not received police approval.