Sweden allocates €27 million for school security upgrades

Sweden's government will invest 300 million kronor (€27 million) to improve security in schools. This decision comes after the deadliest mass shooting in Swedish history at a school last month. On February 4, a 35-year-old man named Rickard Andersson entered the Campus Risbergska adult education centre in Örebro. He killed ten people before taking his own life. Education Minister Johan Pehrson described this tragic event as turning a place of learning into a crime scene. Minister Pehrson noted that reports of threats and violence in Swedish schools have risen by over 150% in the past ten years. He expressed concern that students and teachers now attend school with significant anxiety. The government will offer grants to schools for safety upgrades, such as security cameras and checkpoints. They will also propose a new law requiring schools to create emergency plans and be prepared for crises. This plan includes the ability to search students' bags. Authorities are still investigating the motive behind the shooting. They described the shooter as an unemployed recluse with no criminal record, who had a hunting license for four guns. Victims' identities have not been released, but concern has grown among immigrant communities as their backgrounds became known. While school shootings are rare in Sweden, the country faces violence linked to gang activities. Other violent incidents have occurred in schools in recent years. For example, an 18-year-old student stabbed two teachers in Malmö in March 2022, and a 16-year-old was arrested for stabbing a student and a teacher in Kristianstad. In 2015, a racially motivated attack in Trollhättan resulted in three deaths.