While the violence with firearms is decreasing, the explosions have continued. So far this year, up to and including August, there have been 119 explosions, which can be compared to 62 at the same time last year.
At the same time, the explosions have changed character.
What is used now is often pyrotechnics or old hand grenades that often work worse, says National Police Commissioner Petra Lundh.
Arson attacks increase
The hand grenades come mainly from other countries and are smuggled in, says Mats Berggren.
We can see quite clearly that when new batches of hand grenades arrive, the use of them in various types of conflict violence increases. When they are missing, more fire violence is used, he says.
The arson attacks are something new that the police have not encountered to this extent before.
We arrested a number of bomb makers at the beginning of the year. What came instead was that we started seeing arson attacks. We have not seen that before in this way, but it clearly increased, says Petra Lundh.
Pyrotechnics, especially so-called bangers, also occur.
It is completely legal in many other European countries, so it is easy to bring in, says Lundh.
Must customs step up?
They work intensively, but it is a difficult task if you think about how many cars, and also boats, pass Sweden's border every day.
The police feel at the same time that they have managed to push back the use of civilian explosives, which caused powerful explosions a few years ago.
We have worked very hard against the civilian market with supervision so that there is order and that the explosives do not go astray, says Petra Lundh.
She notes that explosions usually occur to scare and threaten, and in normal cases not to kill and injure.
High conflict level
But the fact that the police have not been able to stop the explosions shows that the tensions within the criminal networks persist, according to Mats Berggren.
There is still a high level of conflict and a willingness to use violence, but they use other means, he says.
When asked how the police will stop hand grenades and arson attacks, the two managers answer that it is about international cooperation and intensified intelligence work.
When it comes to arson attacks, we have communicated to gas stations and taxi companies that if they see young people filling petrol cans, they should contact us, says Petra Lundh.
Number of explosions January–August:
2025: 119
2024: 76
2023: 120
2022: 62
2021: 56
Source: The Police
