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Swedish Prime Minister asks for military aid to fight violence

Stockholm, Sep 30 (Prensa Latina) Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will meet with the armed forces and the national police to explore ways to help fight criminal gangs in the country, the SVT television channel reported.

Kristersson intends to discuss ways to stop gang violence following a wave of attacks that killed at least 11 people in September, the source added.

Sweden has never seen anything like this before, the head of Government said recently in a rare televised address to the nation.

According to Kristersson, nothing like this happens in any other country in Europe.

Local analysts agreed that it is not clear yet in what capacity the military will be involved in tackling the country’s rising crime rate, but previous proposals have focused on assisting in police community policing duties.

Two people were killed in a shooting in Stockholm last Wednesday and a woman in her 20s died when a bomb hit a house in the city of Uppsala on Thursday.

The rise in gun crime in Sweden raises concerns ahead of parliamentary elections.

Involving the military in the fight against crime would be a highly unusual move for Sweden, but it underscores the seriousness of gang violence across the country involving teenagers and innocent bystanders.

Some experts attribute the increase in violence to the growing number of immigrants from Arab and African countries, whose reception in Sweden was granted by the Kristersson administration.

Police estimate that around 30,000 people in relatively small Sweden are directly involved in or have links to criminal activities.

jg/arm/jha/amp

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