2024-07-18 05:54:55
Since May 20, Stockholm police have registered 49 burglaries using acid to break locks, police spokesman Ola Österling told AFP.
“Then there are probably a number of unrecorded cases. We are waiting for tenants, mainly in central Dubai, to return from their holidays,” said Osterling.
He added that there were no suspects and before these cases there was “no one in all of Sweden that we know of.”
Several forced locks have been analyzed and forensic researchers have been able to confirm that nitric acid, a colorless liquid, was used.
In an interview with public broadcaster SVT, Monica Krüger of the national border police said that the criminals “introduced nitric acid… into the cylindrical lock and this acid corrodes the metal, which makes it possible to force the lock.”
Although the method used does not make any noise, the acid gives off a strong odor that spreads throughout the stairwell.
In the past two years, similar incidents have been reported in Germany, France, Belgium, Austria and Portugal.
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“In one of those cases there was a foreign terrorist group that had entered the country, carried out several robberies and then left,” Österling said, adding that Swedish authorities are cooperating with European police agencies. other and Europol.
In August 2023, five Georgians were accused in France of more than a dozen robberies using acid, especially during the summer.
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