
OREBRO, Sweden, Feb 5 – Survivors of Sweden’s worst mass shooting on Wednesday recalled trying to save the lives of their comrades at a school for adults in Orebro, a day after a gunman killed 11 people on what the prime minister called a “dark day” in the country’s history.
Police said there was no evidence the suspect, named by Swedish media as Rickard Andersson, a 35-year-old unemployed recluse, had “ideological motives”. A police source also named Andersson as the suspect.
A police spokesperson declined to comment on the name of the suspect.
At least 11 people were killed and several more wounded in the attack at the Risbergska adult education centre in Orebro, a city of more than 100,000 people some 200 km (125 miles) west of Stockholm, on Tuesday. The police discovered Andersson’s body at the scene.
Police believe the killer, who they said was not previously known to them, acted alone.
“We will get back on what motives there are,” local police chief Roberto Eid Forest told a press conference earlier on Wednesday.
Five of the six wounded who were treated in hospital – four women and two men – had required surgery for gunshot wounds and remained in a serious condition, regional authorities said.
The exact number of those wounded in the attack has not been confirmed by police.

Some students were in class, while others were having lunch when the gunman began firing at around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
“A guy next to me was shot in the shoulder. He was bleeding a lot. When I looked behind me I saw three people on the floor bleeding. Everyone was shocked. They said: ‘Go out! Get out!’,” a student named Marwa told broadcaster TV4.
“I took my friend’s shawl and tied it tightly around his shoulder so that he wouldn’t bleed so much.”
Hellen Werme, 35, a nursing student, said that after hearing shots she had hidden under a bed to evade the gunman.
“The teacher shouted for us to lock the door and get down on the floor,” the mother-of-two told Reuters. “I thought that this was my last time, my last day. That I’m getting shot today.”
Werme said she still had not been able to get in touch with five of her classmates who were in a different part of the school when the shooting occurred.
“I never want to go back there,” she said.
Many students in Sweden’s adult school system are immigrants seeking qualifications to help them find jobs in the Nordic country, while also learning Swedish.
The Campus Risbergska school has around 2,700 pupils, around 800 of whom were enrolled in Swedish For Immigrants courses, according to information provided by the local authority.
It said that students, who vary in age from 18 to 70, came from a range of backgrounds and nationalities.

REUTERS