Dozens of cars set on fire in co-ordinated arson attack in Gothenburg, Sweden

A GROUP of hooded offenders has set more than 80 cars on fire in a co-ordinated attack stretching across one of Sweden’s biggest cities.

UP TO 80 cars were set on fire overnight across western Sweden by masked vandals, police said, in what they suspect was a co-ordinated attack weeks before a general election.

Most of the cars were burned at around 20 locations in Sweden’s second largest city of Gothenburg late Monday.

Authorities said two suspects aged between 16 and 21 have been arrested so far in Gothenburg and would be questioned on Tuesday.

Police said they believe the attacks were organised on social media. No one was injured in the car blazes.

“We’ve never seen this many cars set on fire before,” Hans Lippens, police spokesman in western Sweden, told AFP.

pic.twitter.com/M88JFvxXqv

— Johan Jansson (@JJohanJJansson) August 13, 2018

🆘‼🤬🔥 #Sweden: civil war-like conditions in the Swedish #Gothenburg. The youth of the usual suspects (all masked) burned down dozens of cars in a housing estate. Local residents filmed the full extent of the aggressive attacks. pic.twitter.com/ZNpvaNP9Gx

— Onlinemagazin (@OnlineMagazin) August 14, 2018

The incident triggered outrage among Swedish politicians who are busy campaigning for the September 9 general election.

Social Democratic Prime Minister Stefan Lofven scolded the group on public broadcaster Swedish Radio.

“I’m furious. My question to (the perpetrators) is: What the hell are you doing?

“You’re ruining things for yourselves, your parents and your neighbourhoods,” Mr Lofven said, adding the incident “looked very co-ordinated, almost like a military operation”.

Burned cars parked in Gothenburg. Picture: Adam Ihse

Cars being set ablaze is common in Sweden. In Stockholm’s suburbs alone, such crimes happen almost on a daily basis, usually attributed to disadvantaged youths.

Last year, 1457 cars were “deliberately” set on fire across Sweden, compared to 1641 in 2016, according to the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency’s figures.

“Sweden has tolerated this for too long. This must end now,” Ulf Kristersson, leader of the conservative opposition party, the Moderates, wrote on his Facebook account.

In February last year, two days after US President Donald Trump’s baffling comments linking crime to immigration in Sweden, riots broke out in the immigrant-heavy northern Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby.

Dozens of youths clashed with police after they arrested a suspected drug dealer in Rinkeby. The rioters threw stones at police, burned cars and looted shops.

Originally published as Dozens of cars set on fire in co-ordinated arson attack in Gothenburg, Sweden