The thing started when one of my colleagues, who is an archaeologist and teacher, came with a school class and walked across the area and stumbled upon a clear pit, says Nina Eklöf, museum chief in Västerås municipality.
In total, about fifty pits have been discovered, which has been called one of Sweden's most important.
The looting occurred on Monday evening or early Tuesday morning, according to Eklöf.
I believe quite clearly that someone has gone with a metal detector and where the detector has given a signal, they have dug with a shovel, lifted away a turf, found an object and taken it with them.
"Tears in my throat"
The looters have probably taken iron objects with them since there are traces of rust and corrosion in the soil.
But what they have taken with them exactly, we do not know and we will probably not be able to find out – it is just gone.
The site has not been excavated archaeologically yet, so the objects that have been removed could have provided vital information about the Viking Age and Bronze Age, emphasizes Eklöf.
It is impossible to explain the feeling of how something so quickly destroys something that has been lying here for thousands of years.
I am angry at the same time as I have tears in my throat over the fact that this is gone and destroyed.
The incident is reported
Who the looters are is unclear – but they have tried to leave as few traces as possible by putting back the turfs.
The incident has been reported to the County Administrative Board, which has conducted an inspection. The police also rushed to the cultural heritage site.
It is true that we are on site, but what it ends with is too early to say, says press spokesperson Maria Hall.
The police later stated that they had filed a report on a cultural heritage crime and that door-to-door questioning had been carried out in the area to gather more information.
Culture Minister Parisa Liljestrand on her social media that the event makes her "damn furious". "This is not just theft: this is a downright despicable vandalism of our common cultural heritage", she adds.
