The police in Sweden still tries to find the perpetrator of a triple murder in Uppsala, a university city north of Stockholm.

The shooting happened in a hair salon of a residential neighbourhood. The police blocked the public transport to stop the attacker, but no official information about the motives were made public in the first hours.

Olof Edsinger, a theologian and author at Evangelical Focus, followed the situation close. “The triple murder happened in my own hometown; actually, about the same time as I arrived at the central station on my way home from work in Stockholm – 500 meters from the crime scene”.

Edsinger, who serves as general secretary of the Swedish Evangelical Alliance, says that although he and most Swedes “have been used, unfortunately, to violent gang disputes during the last years, but the scope and brutality of this – with three people killed – certainly exceeds what we are used to”.

This crime, he continued, is “certainly the most brutal act that we have experienced in Uppsala. Still, we thank God no civilians came in the line of fire this time”.

Gang situation “has run out of the hands of the authorities”

According to Swedish national television SVT, one of the victims killed in Uppsala had been investigated over an alleged planned attack against a relative of a gang leader.

For Olof Edinsger, “all of this is obviously deeply tragic, and it’s a consequence of a development that has run out of the hands of the authorities”.

The government of Sweden described the crime as a “brutal act of violence”.

In February, the country experienced the worst gun attack in its history. Ten students were killed in a school for adults in Örebro.

 “We pray for peace and stability”, Olof Edsinger told Evangelical Focus, “but also for tools for politicians and the police to counter these situations”.