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Crime

Sweden to set up 'school attack commission' after deadly sword assault

AFP/The Local
AFP/The Local - news@thelocal.se
Published: 24 Aug, 2026 CET. Updated: Mon 24 Aug 2026 11:53 CET
Sweden to set up 'school attack commission' after deadly sword assault
Sweden's Minister for Education and Integration Simona Mohamsson. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT
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Sweden will form a commission seeking to prevent attacks on schools, days after a 17-year-old girl was killed and three people wounded by a sword-wielding assailant at a high school in Fagersta.

The attack on the school in the small town north-west of Stockholm on Friday was the latest of several deadly incidents at educational institutions over the last decade.

Minister for Education and Integration Simona Mohamsson told a press conference on Monday that the government would be appointing a school attack commission "that will propose new measures to prevent future school attacks".

"In recent years, Sweden has seen several serious and deadly attacks on schools," Mohamsson said.

"The idea of a completely open school is a good one, but reality means that we cannot allow unauthorised individuals free access to our schools," she added.

Mohamsson said she did not wish to speculate on what changes that commission might recommend.

Police said over the weekend that they were still investigating a motive for Friday's attack.

Police had opened fire against the 18-year-old suspect, named in court documents as Liam Nebel, before taking him into custody. Over the weekend they said they were still investigating the motive in that attack.

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Swedish media have reported that the perpetrator had a previous assault conviction and wore a helmet and carried a sword – reminiscent of a 2015 school attack in the western town of Trollhättan in which a 21-year-old killed three people in a racially motivated attack.

In February 2025, a 35-year-old man killed 10 people at an adult education centre in Örebro.

In March 2022, an 18-year-old student stabbed two teachers to death at a secondary school in the southern city of Malmö.

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Comments (5)

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KL
Not sure why the "free access" argument is being raised. The perpetrator of this was a student at the school and therefore had access. So restricting access to outsiders would have had no effect !
Andy
Free access to schools was always a terrible idea based likely on cost savings, not least for abduction risk. Swedish School security culture unfortunately driven primarily by the school head, and they are often very naive when it comes to risks. 'But why should we worry about random strangers entering schools? we have never had an abduction or mass shooting here before?' ' Is unfortunately the normal mindset. Some parents also happy to just wish the risk away and pretend Sweden is different.
V
Calling it a school crime shifts focus away from the root cause. It's called a hate crime. It requires different measures.
Dale
A heinous crime committed by a disaffected and clearly troubled youth who was fixated with hard rightwing groups and with Anders Brevik - a mass murderer with hard right views. The focus of the last 4 years by the current Swedish administration - a rightwing party backed up by a party that has Nazi origins - has been on divisive rhetoric and active discrimination against immigrants. And here we are; nothing exists in a vacuum.... I hope Ulf is having a dark night of the soul over this. Jimmie won't be.....
P
So in +10 years we have chronology of events. Do we also have some insight of motives and measures after such terrible events? Personally, I'm more aware only of 2025 case.

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