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Swedish police are increasingly confident they have caught the man responsible for a truck attack in the capital Stockholm on Friday, but would not rule out the possibility that other people had been involved.
The attack sent terrified shoppers running for their lives as the stolen truck rammed pedestrians and crashed into a department store, killing four people and injuring 15 others.
Swedish prosecutor Hans Ihrman confirmed the suspect was a 39-year-old Uzbekistan-born man. The prosecutor also said he had not yet spoken, and could not confirm whether he was a legal resident of Sweden.
"Nothing points to that we have the wrong person, on the contrary, suspicions have strengthened as the investigation has progressed," the head of the national police, Dan Eliasson, told reporters.
"We still cannot rule out that more people are involved."
The head of Sweden's domestic intelligence agency said the man had been on authorities' radar some time ago, and had figured in intelligence material.
"We received intelligence last year, but we did not see any links to extremist circles," said Anders Thornberg, head of the Swedish Security Service.
"The arrested man was not part of any of the security police's ongoing investigations. However, he is a person who has previously figured in our intelligence flow."
Mr Thornberg said the security services were working with other nations' security agencies on the matter, but declined to elaborate.
Mr Eliasson said police also found an object on the driver's seat of the truck that "could be a bomb or an incendiary object, we are still investigating it".
"We have found something in the truck, in the driver's seat, a technical device that should not be there," he said.
"I cannot say at this stage that this is a bomb or some sort of flammable material.
"Whether it is a classic bomb or a fire device or something else is subject to technical analysis."
Monday, a day of mourning
Sweden's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister both laid flowers on Saturday at a memorial near the site where a hijacked beer truck rammed into pedestrians and into a department store.
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said Swedes "must get through this — life must go on".
Mr Lofven said Monday would be a day of mourning in Sweden, with a minute of silence at noon.
Stockholm Mayor Karin Wanngard said she was heartened by the response of those living in the capital.
In particular, she commended those who used the hashtag #openstockholm to offer transport for people who could not make it home on Friday.
She said the city had shown great solidarity and that it was already getting back to normal.
"My warmest thoughts are with relatives and the families of those affected," she said.
"Now it's about making decisions whether activities should be open or not. My aim is to open up Stockholm as soon as possible."
At the scene of the attack, bloody tyre tracks on Drottninggatan (Queen Street) showed where the truck had passed.
"I turned around and saw a big truck coming towards me. It swerved from side to side. It didn't look out of control, it was trying to hit people," said Glen Foran, an Australian tourist.
"It hit people, it was terrible. It hit a pram with a kid in it, demolished it."
Former Gold Coast resident Sabina Allotta, who witnessed the attack unfold from her office window 150 metres away, said it was "surreal".
"[I] just saw all these people just start piling out on the streets and ... then police cars driving along footpaths ... helicopters turned up very quickly," she told the ABC.
"[There was] just a very, very eerie feeling that something was seriously wrong."
Swedish prosecutors said the detained man had been arrested on the strongest degree of suspicion of committing a terror crime.
"The person in question has been arrested as the culprit ... in this case the driver," police spokesman Lars Bystrom said.
"Then, there can be other people who are associated with him, but we do not know that at the current time."
Sweden's legal system has several degrees regarding the strength of suspicion.
Security has been heightened at Swedish borders, and police in neighbouring Norway's largest cities and at Oslo's airport will carry weapons until further notice.
The attack was the latest to hit the Nordic region after shootings in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2015 that killed three people, and the 2011 bombing and shooting by far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik that killed 77 people in Norway.
Several attacks in which trucks or cars have driven into crowds have taken place in other parts of Europe in the past year.
AP/Reuters
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, emergency-incidents, disasters-and-accidents, sweden
First posted