At least 11 people were killed and several more wounded in a mass shooting attack at the Risbergska adult education centre in Orebro, a city of more than 100,000 people, located 200 kilometres west of Stockholm.
Police said the motives of the shooter, who also died in the incident, were still unclear.
"We will get back on what motives there are," local police chief Roberto Eid Forest told a press conference earlier on Wednesday (local time).
Five of the six wounded who were treated in hospital — four women and two men — had required surgery for gunshot wounds and remained in a serious condition, regional authorities said.
The exact number of those wounded in the attack has not been confirmed by police.
What's known about the shooter
Police said there was no evidence the suspect, named by Swedish media as Rickard Andersson, a 35-year-old unemployed recluse, had "ideological motives".
What we know about the Sweden mass shooting
Photo shows Police cars are parked near the suspect's house after a deadly shooting attack in Sweden.
Andersson lived locally, had been unemployed for a decade and had changed his first and last name, a police source and tax data show.
Police did not publicly confirm the age and profile of the attacker, who killed at least 11 people and wounded others before apparently turning his weapon on himself.
Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet, reported that, according to documents viewed by the paper, the man had previously been enrolled at the school for several mathematics classes, without finishing them.
The most recent class he was enrolled for was in 2021.
Police said the suspect was not known to them prior to the mass shooting and had never been convicted of any crime.
They also said he had no gang connection and was believed to have acted alone.
Police said nothing so far pointed to an ideological motive behind the attack, in which the suspect fired at police when they arrived at the school.
Aftonbladet, who spoke to relatives of the man believed to be the shooter, described him as a recluse who had limited contact with his family for years.
The paper said the man did not have a high school certificate.
Tax data showed that the attacker last declared work-related income in 2014 and that he lived in a one-bedroom apartment in a low-rise building less than a kilometre from the city centre.
Surviving students recall shooting
Survivors of Sweden's worst mass shooting have recalled trying to save the lives of their comrades at the school.
Mourners gather to place flowers and candles outside Risbergska School in Orebro the day after the school shooting. (Reuters: TT News Agency)
Some students were in class, while others were having lunch when the gunman began firing at around 12:30pm on Tuesday (local time).
Hellen Werme, 35, a nursing student, said after hearing shots she had hidden under a bed to evade the gunman.
"The teacher shouted for us to lock the door and get down on the floor," the mother-of-two said.
"I thought that this was my last time, my last day. That I'm getting shot today."
Hellen Werme, a nursing student and mother of two, recalls the mass shooting. (Reuters: Kuba Stezycki)
Ms Werme said she still had not been able to get in touch with five of her classmates who were in a different part of the school when the shooting occurred.
"I never want to go back there," she said.
Many students in Sweden's adult school system were immigrants seeking qualifications to help them find jobs in the Nordic country, while also learning Swedish.
The Campus Risbergska school has about 2,700 students with about 800 of them enrolled in Swedish For Immigrants courses, according to information provided by the local authority.
It said that students, who vary in age from 18 to 70, came from a range of backgrounds and nationalities.
'Totally unexpected'
The morning after the attack, Orebro was still in shock.
"That it could happen in Orebro, that was totally unexpected," Mayor John Johansson told broadcaster SVT.
"I understand that children, our youth, are very afraid today. So am I," he said.
Police said they did not see any general threat against schools or pre-schools in the country, nor against adult education schools, including Swedish classes for immigrants.
Sweden has been struggling with a wave of shootings and bombings caused by an endemic gang crime problem that has seen the country of 10 million people record by far the highest per capita rate of gun violence in the European Union in recent years.
However, fatal attacks at schools are rare.
Ten people were killed in seven incidents of deadly violence at schools between 2010 and 2022, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.
Reuters
