Sweden is planning to hold an amnesty for grenades after a rapid rise in the number of incidents involving the hand-held explosive devices.
The government has put forward proposals for a three-month amnesty between October 2018 and January 2019, which will be voted on early next year, the Dagens Nyheter newspaper reports.
Although crime has fallen in recent years, the number of grenade attacks in Sweden soared from eight in 2014 to 52 in 2016, according to the Swedish Police Authority.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
These incidents have “shocked a Nordic country that prides itself on safety, led to worries criminality is out of control and given political fodder to a resurgent far-right that blames immigrant gangs for the violence”, Reuters reported in 2015.
One attack involved an eight-year-old British boy, who was killed when a grenade was thrown into a Gothenburg apartment last year. Investigators believe the attack was gang-related and may have been linked to an underworld feud.
Many of the grenades have been smuggled in from the Balkans, Manne Gerell, a criminology researcher at Malmo University told Quartz earlier this year.
“They are surplus weapons from the civil war,” he said, but “it’s not as well established exactly how they’ve come in [to Sweden].”
Though the attacks “appear random,” Swedish authorities believe many to be linked with organised crime, Quartz reported.
“In most cases, either the suspect or the victim is associated with a criminal network,” Gerell said.
-
Political cartoons for November 30Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include the Saudi-China relationship, MAGA spelled wrong, and more
-
Rothermere’s Telegraph takeover: ‘a right-leaning media powerhouse’Talking Point Deal gives Daily Mail and General Trust more than 50% of circulation in the UK newspaper market
-
The US-Saudi relationship: too big to fail?Talking Point With the Saudis investing $1 trillion into the US, and Trump granting them ‘major non-Nato ally’ status, for now the two countries need each other
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
-
Brazil’s Bolsonaro behind bars after appeals run outSpeed Read He will serve 27 years in prison
-
Americans traveling abroad face renewed criticism in the Trump eraThe Explainer Some of Trump’s behavior has Americans being questioned
-
Nigeria confused by Trump invasion threatSpeed Read Trump has claimed the country is persecuting Christians
-
Sanae Takaichi: Japan’s Iron Lady set to be the country’s first woman prime ministerIn the Spotlight Takaichi is a member of Japan’s conservative, nationalist Liberal Democratic Party
-
Russia is ‘helping China’ prepare for an invasion of TaiwanIn the Spotlight Russia is reportedly allowing China access to military training
-
Interpol arrests hundreds in Africa-wide sextortion crackdownIN THE SPOTLIGHT A series of stings disrupts major cybercrime operations as law enforcement estimates millions in losses from schemes designed to prey on lonely users
-
China is silently expanding its influence in American citiesUnder the Radar New York City and San Francisco, among others, have reportedly been targeted
