In 2025 alone, the police have had around 100 cases involving hand grenades; in 66 of the cases they have also exploded, reports Sweden's radio Ekot.
"We have seen an increase in both the use of hand grenades in criminal violence but also the demand for them," says Malin Nygren, head of the National Bomb Data Center, to the radio.
In several of the cases where hand grenades have been used, people have been injured, including a mother and her preschool-aged child who were injured in April this year when a hand grenade was thrown into the room where they were sleeping, south of Stockholm. The mother suffered life-threatening injuries and the girl was seriously injured. A month later, an elderly woman in Örebro was injured when a hand grenade was thrown into her bedroom.
In both cases, it was found that the hand grenades had been thrown into the wrong apartment.
The cases also involve hand grenades that were found before they could be used, for example, in someone's home or during transport.
