A bystander checks debris around a row of burnt out cars in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby after youths rioted in several suburbs yesterday.
STOCKHOLM: Stockholm police called in reinforcements as the Swedish capital braced for a fifth night of riots yesterday in its immigrant-dominated suburbs, where rioters torched cars and attacked local stations overnight.
The riots, which have shattered Sweden’s image abroad as a peaceful and egalitarian nation, have sparked a debate in Sweden about the assimilation of immigrants, who make up about 15 percent of the population.
Many of the immigrants who have arrived due to the country’s generous refugee policy, struggle to learn the language and find employment despite numerous government programmes.
Police said yesterday they would be calling in reinforcements from other parts of the country as they braced for more trouble in coming days.
The fire brigade said it was called to some 90 different blazes overnight, most of them caused by rioters.
Early yesterday, rioters hurled rocks at a local police station in the Kista district, near the suburb of Husby where the unrest began on Sunday night. Rocks were also thrown at two local police stations south of the Swedish capital.
In the southern suburb of Skogaas, a restaurant was badly damaged after it was set ablaze.
“We are gradually becoming more like other countries,” said Aje Carlbom, a social anthropologist at Malmoe University.
The troubles are believed to have been triggered by the fatal police shooting of a 69-year-old Husby resident last week after the man wielded a machete in public. The man then fled to his apartment, where police have said they tried to mediate but ended up shooting him dead in what they claimed was self-defence.
Local activists said the shooting sparked anger among youths who claim to have suffered from police brutality. During the first night of rioting, they said police had called them “tramps, monkeys and negroes.” Two people, including one police officer, have been reported injured in the four nights of rioting. Police, meanwhile, downplayed the scale of the events.
“Every injured person is a tragedy, every torched car is a failure for society... but Stockholm is not burning,” said Ulf Johansson, deputy police chief for Stockholm county. AFP
