One person was killed and three others were injured in a sword attack at the Brinellskolan upper secondary school in Fagersta, Sweden, on Friday. A man aged 18 has been arrested.
Swedish police announced the fatality on Friday evening, DR reports. Officers were called to the school and found one person dead. Three further people had left the building before police entered.
According to the police account cited by DR, the alarm came at 14:06 and described “ongoing deadly violence” at Brinellskolan. The school has around 450 students. Two of the injured were seriously hurt, while the third sustained lighter injuries.
The suspected attacker, described by police as a man in his late teens, was detained at the scene. Police confirmed that shots were fired during the arrest. Searches have been carried out at two homes in connection with the case.
What other outlets report
Dagens Nyheter reports, based on police statements, that the suspect was neutralized with live ammunition at 14:16. Per the same outlet, the 18-year-old had previously attended the school. Police told Dagens Nyheter there were no known threats against Brinellskolan before the attack.
SVT reports that two of the injured are boys under the age of 18 and that their condition was described as serious but stable. As stated by SVT, the suspect was shot in the leg before being taken into custody. Region Västmanland’s health service entered emergency coordination mode, known as stabsläge, to handle the injured.
Reuters describes Brinellskolan as a school for students aged 16 to 20. Early Reuters reporting noted the detention of one person and said there was no longer any danger to the public. That version was published before the death was confirmed.
Krisinformation.se, Sweden’s official crisis information service, carried Fagersta municipality’s statement that an assailant with a sword had entered the school and wounded several people. The municipality opened a crisis center for students, staff and relatives. Several other schools in the town were kept under lockdown while police searched the area.
Police have said they have no reason to believe further perpetrators were involved. Fagersta lies about 150 kilometers northwest of Stockholm and has roughly 12,000 residents. The background to the attack is not yet known.
DR notes that in February 2025, the Campus Risbergska adult education center in Örebro was the site of a mass shooting in which ten people were killed before the perpetrator took his own life.
Denmark and Sweden signed an agreement to boost security cooperation in recent years. No Danish authority has commented on Friday’s attack.
