Swedish police late Thursday said they had arrested a man they believe has links to Islamic State and whom they have been hunting since Wednesday on suspicion of planning an attack.
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“The decision to raise the threat level is partly based on the fact that our Service has received specific information which we must act upon as part of our counter-terrorism remit”.
Synagogues across Sweden were closed down as a precautionary measure after Stockholm raised the country’s terror threat assessment level on Wednesday, the World Jewish Congress has announced.
Prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation right into a potential terrorist offence.
Local Swedish information company Six, citing an unnamed supply, stated an Iraqi man who had acquired army coaching in Syria entered Sweden on Wednesday with the intent to hold out an assault.
“The attacks in Paris on November 13 show that IS may have an increased ability to carry out even relatively complex attacks in Europe”. Sweden has taken in tens of thousands of asylum seekers in recent months and never has Sweden’s terror threat level been as high as it is now, reported Swedish newspapers on Thursday.
Swedish security police said this week almost 300 Swedish passport-holders had gone to fight with Islamic State and about 120 had returned to Sweden.
A spokeswoman for the security service, known as SAPO, said the suspect was in custody and the arrest had been carried out “in an orderly fashion”.
The safety police declined to touch upon the report.
Over the last few years, Sweden has participated in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation missions in Afghanistan and is training Kurdish forces in Iraq, moves that have changed its traditional image of neutrality.
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Five police vehicles were parked outside Stockholm’s central station but the visible police presence was minimal inside the building.
