Halloween revelers keep Swedish police busy

The recent payday, Halloween, and a concert by hip hop star 50 Cent proved to be a recipe for an extra messy weekend for police around Sweden.

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"It's been hell to be honest," Tony Persson with Gävleborgs police told the TT news agency.

His colleague, Anders Jönsson in Stockholm, suspected the relatively warm weekend weather might have contributed to people staying out later, and consuming even more alcohol.

"People were lying in piles and we were running shuttles back and forth," he told TT.

In Malmö in southern Sweden, nearly 200 police reports were filed, but police refused to speculate about whether they had any connection to the warmer weather or Halloween.

"The only things that can be directly connected to Halloween are two cases of egg tossing at houses and one at a bus," Cindy Schönström Larsson at Skåne police said.

About 50 cases of drunkenness were reported, as well as 30 cases of assault. There were also ten reported muggings, half of which occured Malmö.

One person was taken to hospital after being assaulted, and two muggers forced a 76-year-old man to reveal his ATM code, promptly emptying his account of than 10,000 kronor ($1,600).

Also in Gävleborg in north central Sweden police had a rough weekend.

On Friday, the international rap star 50 Cent performed in Sandviken, and the aftermath became a rough one for police, who apprehended 17 drunks. And the following night also offered some action, when three people were arrested and 28 apprehended in just a few hours.

"Halloween celebrations and pay day, it was a miserable weekend," Tony Persson told TT.

In Uppsala just north of Stockholm 35 people were apprehended, compared to 25 which is the normal number for a weekend, Tommy Karlsson at Uppsala police explained to TT.

"It has been a little more intoxication than normal, but less crime. Less assault and less vandalism," he said.

In the Västerås area in the northern parts of Lake Mälaren, police instead experienced more vandalism than usual, and they also had to break off more parties and act as negotiators when "trick-or-treating" got out of hand.

"Considering it was pay day and the beginning of autumn break we expect a little more," duty officer Jimmy Lindvall told TT.

"And of course we could feel it was a weekend with a somewhat higher workload."