Hand Grenades Increasingly Common Among Criminals

Hand grenades have become more common in connection with explosive violence than before.

So far this year (up to and including October 18), 22 hand grenades have exploded in criminal contexts, compared to 9 last year and 12 the previous year, according to figures from the Police's national bomb data center, which SVT News has obtained.

The Customs Service is also seeing an increase in seizures of hand grenades. This year, 16 hand grenades have been stopped at the border, compared to none at all last year.

Previously, hand grenades have been a completely non-existent smuggling item from our perspective, says Stefan Granath, deputy control manager at the Customs Service, to SVT News.

Corrected: An earlier version contained an incorrect figure from the Customs Service regarding the number of seized grenades.