Two women have died after “being subjected to serious violence at a secondary school in the southern Swedish town of Malmö.
It was not immediately known what had happened but police said there had been no reports of gunfire.
“Two women in their 50s have died as a result of being subjected to violence,” a police statement said on Monday evening.
“The women were employed at the school. Relatives have been notified.
“An 18-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. The man is a student at the school.”
The incident, took place at Malmö latinskola, a big secondary school in the country’s third-biggest city, with police receiving first reports shortly after 5pm.
“This is absolutely terrible,” the school principal Fredrik Hemmensjö told the Aftonbladet newspaper. Police spokesperson Nils Norling said about 50 people, both students and adults, were in the school at the time.
The incident took place in a new annexe of the school, which was founded in 1406 when the pope issued a letter of privilege allowing for its construction and operation. It was originally meant to educate local youth in Christian doctrine and Latin.
The school remained cordoned off with police tape several hours later, with numerous police cars and ambulances still at the scene. Authorities had yet to disclose any details about what happened, or any motive.
The first patrols at the scene received information that “pointed to a serious crime being committed and that violence was occurring in the school”, Norling told AFP.
“We have no reports of any gunfire inside the school,” he added. “Other than that I can’t go into more specific details”
Norling said police were questioning “a few people inside the school … to get a clear picture of what happened”.
