Blast hits Turkish cultural center in Sweden

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuters) — An explosion severely damaged part of a building that housed a Turkish cultural association in a Stockholm suburb late on Wednesday (February 17) but no one was injured, police said.

A Swedish police officer investigating the blast site. (Photo courtesy: Reuters/Photo grabbed from Reuters video)
A Swedish police officer investigating the blast site. (Photo courtesy: Reuters/Photo grabbed from Reuters video)

Police said all the windows of the center were blown out and that technicians were on site to investigate the cause. The center was located in the basement of a building in Fittja, in southwest Stockholm.

A police spokesman said no one was inside and no one was injured. It had been locked since earlier in the evening

No one has been arrested and there are currently no suspects, he added.

According to local media reports, witnesses had seen a person throw an object at the building.

“Today there was a bomb attack on the Turkish association. Someone threw a bomb into the premises and I’ve been in there myself and had a look. There is a lot of damage – the walls and radiators and there’s a lot of glass everywhere. The premises have been pretty much completely damaged,” said the head of the association, Ismail Zengin.

Media reports also said there was increased security around other Turkish association premises as well as mosques in the Swedish capital.

Earlier on Wednesday, 28 people were killed and dozens wounded in Turkey’s capital Ankara when a car laden with explosives detonated next to military buses near the armed forces’ headquarters, parliament and other government buildings.