Foreign

Attackers break into Stockholm mosque, paint swastikas

November 27, 2016

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At a Stockholm mosque just after morning prayers on Saturday, unidentified attackers burst into the building, spray-painting swastikas and hate speech on the walls and throwing firecrackers, police said.

All of the worshippers had left the mosque at the time of the attack except one, and he was shaken but unharmed, mosque officials told Swedish news agency TT. Police said they were investigating the incident as vandalism and a hate crime. No arrests had been made several hours after the attack.

Police said they were investigating the incident as vandalism and a hate crime. No arrests had been made several hours after the attack.

“This is not something one would expect… It’s hard to understand what is going on in society, both internationally and in our own country. I don’t recognise Sweden anymore,” Mustafa Tumturk, a representative of Stockholm’s Muslim community and one of the founders of the mosque in 1985, told TT.

Sweden has seen a spate of attacks against mosques and refugee centres in recent years, as the country has taken in record numbers of refugees – 2,45,000 in 2014 and 2015.