According to the report, there are strong indications that Malmö council candidate David von Arnold Antoni may have inflicted the wound on himself, casting doubt on his claims to have been pinned to the floor by two “Arab-sounding” men.

A medical examiner concluded that “the position and appearance of the injury provide strong indications that it was self-inflicted,” local newspaper Sydsvenskan reports.

The medical examiner said there was a 90 percent likelihood the story was a hoax, a source close to the investigation told Sydsvenskan.

Antoni is now being investigated for providing a false account of events after police also failed to find any evidence of intruders in his home. The politician denies concocting the story and inflicting the wound on himself.

Sweden Democrat party leader Jimmie Åkesson wrote an open letter on September 13th in a bid to highlight “the violence perpetrated by the extreme left.” He described the purported assault on Antoni as “one of the worst political acts our country has seen in modern times”.

Åkesson was unavailable on Saturday to comment on the medical examiner’s findings. But chief press officer Mattias Karsson said Antoni continued to have the party’s backing.

“Judging from our contact with him and the knowledge we have of him, there is nothing to support this version. He has come across as a person who is stable and down-to-earth,” he said.