Killer spiders found in Swedish town

A number of poisonous spiders were found in central Sweden at the end of last year, with the first found at a school for truckers in Sandviken, another at the Göranssonska high school and even more at tool manufacturer Sandvik Coromant, reports newswire TT.

According to Arbetarbladet, it has now been confirmed that they were of the species Loxosceles Laeta, a Chilean spider whose bite hurts and could in the worst case be fatal – although the risk of getting bitten is relatively small as the spider prefers to hide in dark spaces.

Swedish vocabulary: a spider – en spindel

Boy got wrong second dose of Covid vaccine in Sweden

A 12-year-old boy in Uppsala got the wrong vaccine against Covid-19 in January, reports local newspaper UNT.

His vaccination card said he had previously received Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine, but his medical record stated he had previously had Moderna’s Spikevax, which made the vaccine administrator choose the latter as his second dose.

This despite the fact that the Public Health Agency has said that people under the age of 30 should not be given Spikevax, due to a risk of side effects such as myocarditis for this age group. The boy is in good health, reports UNT, but the mother described the error as “shocking”.

Swedish vocabulary: shocking – chockerande

Main suspect cleared over shooting of two children in southern Stockholm

The main suspect charged in connection with a shooting in the Stockholm suburb of Flemingsberg in July last year, which accidentally injured two young children, was cleared by a Swedish court on Tuesday.

Södertörn District Court said it had not be proved that the 25-year-old man was the one who fired the gun, with witness statements also being possible to potentially link to another man who was at the scene at the same time but was never charged.

The trial heard that the gun was used a during a suspected gang confrontation, which saw the weapon going off when it was being used as a blunt tool to assault another person. Two other people were sentenced to jail for aggravated assault, and the fourth person – the man who was assaulted – was also jailed after it turned out he had been carrying an illegal weapon.

The children, aged six and seven, did not receive life-threatening or permanent injuries.

Swedish vocabulary: a gun – en pistol

Nytorget rapist’s sentence upheld by appeals court

Andreas Holm, also called “the Nytorget man” (“Nytorgsmannen”) in the Swedish media after the Stockholm square where he was found guilty of having raped women seven times, will get five years in jail after an appeals court upheld the district court’s 2021 sentence.

The jail term had been criticised for not being long enough. The 34-year-old was originally charged with 24 counts of rape – several of which the district court downgraded to sexual assaults – and the prosecutor had urged the court to lock him up for 12 years.

He was also ordered to pay 1.1 million kronor in damages to 19 plaintiffs.

Swedish vocabulary: a court – en domstol