The gunman who killed 10 people in an attack on a school in Sweden shouted “you should go away from Europe” in between firing shots at his victims, video analysis shows.
Footage emerged on Wednesday night from what is believed to be the moment target="_self" rel="" title="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/swedish-police-name-rickard-andersson-as-the-man-behind-deadly-school-shooting/W2K7XG6GMYDUQBLO7WVYSXXSW4/">Rickard Andersson, 35, carried out his rampage that killed adults attending classes.
The video is being investigated by police and may offer clues to a motive. The school offers Swedish classes for immigrants and programmes for people with learning disabilities.
Witness reports suggested that the gunman deliberately spared some people while targeting others, although his reasons for doing so remain unclear.
Police said they have no evidence yet that the attack – the largest mass shooting in the country’s history – was “ideological”.
The new video was obtained and analysed by Swedish channel TV4 and appears to capture the voice of an unknown person shouting in Swedish, “You should go away from Europe”, in between the shots being fired.
Andersson, who died at the scene from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, had distanced himself from family and friends in recent years, relatives said, as more details about him began to emerge.
Police raided his one-bedroom home in Örebro on Wednesday following the shooting at Campus Risbergska on the outskirts of the city, TV4 television reported. The Telegraph witnessed officers carrying objects from the building in bags.
Andersson is reported to have changed into a military uniform in the school’s bathroom before he opened fire. One police theory is that he deliberately spared some people while targeting others, although his reasons for doing so remain unclear, according to Aftonbladet, a Swedish newspaper.
Örebro police chief Roberto Eid Forest confirmed on Wednesday that evidence suggested the gunman was already dead when officers arrived at the scene having turned his hunting rifle on himself.
Students at the school described scenes of chaos, with people running through corridors while the gunman calmly walked around and fired his weapon.
A student called Marwa told TV4: “A guy next to me was shot in the shoulder. He was bleeding a lot. When I looked behind me I saw three people on the floor bleeding.
“Everyone was shocked. They said, ‘go out, get out’.
“I took my friend’s shawl and tied it tightly around his shoulder so that he wouldn’t bleed so much.”
Hellen Werme, 35, told the Expressen newspaper: “Those were the worst hours of my life. I did not know if I would get shot there and then, or in 10 minutes. You simply waited.”
Maria Pegado, 54, a teacher at the school, said someone threw open the door to her classroom just after a lunch break and shouted to everyone to get out.
She and her students then ran out of the school to safety.
Six victims remained at Örebro University Hospital on Wednesday, with five having undergone surgery for gunshot wounds. Three women and two men were in a “stable but serious” condition, while another woman was being treated for minor injuries, health officials said.
A picture of the gunman is beginning to emerge, with Aftonbladet reporting that Andersson had moved out of his parents’ home in his early 20s.
Relatives told reporters he did not have a job, and was a “loner”.
A classmate, who knew Andersson as “Jonas” from around age 10, described him as “scary” and “someone that one wouldn’t want to meet again”.
The classmate added that the suspect was probably not well mentally. They said: “He didn’t talk to people. He always had his mouth closed with his hand.”
Another classmate said he would sit with his face covered by his hoodie.
Aftonbladet also reported that the suspect had a licence for several weapons, and he was not known to police before the attack. Lars Wiren, area police chief, said the suspect “was obviously motivated and had access to firearms”.
Risbergska School has up to 2000 students, who are over the age of 20. It offers high school classes as well as Swedish classes for immigrants and programmes for people with learning disabilities.
Spela Majeric, a student enrolled in the SFI (Swedish for Foreigners) course, said that the school had no security.
“This was a very vulnerable school, with a large fraction of students being women. This could probably have been avoided,” Majeric said, adding that she had been due to attend language classes on Tuesday but was a few minutes late as her partner took her for lunch.
“This is an amazing school with amazing teachers who do everything for us,” she said. “When someone … attacks and kills so many people, the feeling is indescribably painful. Those who survived will have to go forward in life, which is both a curse and a blessing.
“I think many people are angry, including me. Many people are scared, including me, and it’s almost unthinkable for me to be able to go back and even enter the school’s premises because of the terrible things that have happened there.”
Police raided the suspect’s apartment on Wednesday before his name was released by Swedish media. Daniel Soleimani, who lives below Andersson’s flat, said that his girlfriend called him while he was out, her voice shaking, saying police were banging on their door.
He contacted the police, who confirmed officers were at the premises and advised him not to enter the building.
He said: “I could never believe I had this guy possibly living a few metres above me all that time. It’s quite scary and daunting.
“I would never expect something like this to happen, or this kind of person living here, and I have been living here for eight years.”
Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia visited the school and will attend a memorial service on Wednesday.
“A grieving process is hard to do alone,” the monarch told reporters after laying white flowers at a memorial site near the school.
He added: “I think all of Sweden feels it has experienced this traumatic event.”
Ulf Kristersson, Sweden’s Prime Minister, joined the royal couple on their trip to Örebro, a city of more than 100,000 people, approximately 125 miles west of Stockholm.
The Royal Court announced that flags would fly at half-mast at all royal palaces, with government offices and Parliament also planning similar measures.
While school attacks are rare in Sweden, the country has experienced several violent incidents in recent years, including two knife attacks at schools in 2022.
The nation has also been grappling with gang-related shootings and bombings that have claimed dozens of lives.
Residents gathered near the school on Wednesday to leave flowers for the victims.
“Those who were killed [on Tuesday] had dreams of becoming a doctor, nurse, engineer, electrician or plumber, but now they can’t, sadly,” said Shamsul Qamar Andesh, a former student of the school.
He added: “It makes me feel very bad and very sad … I never imagined something like this could happen in our city or at that school.”
Iuri Baptista, a Brazilian PhD student at Örebro University, was among those lighting candles in memory of those who died.
He said: “Those who were in this attack are the students like me, so I care. It feels like the attack is about me as well. It’s a personal attack in some sense.
“It could be me, especially if it was a hate attack. This should have a big meaning.”
Baptista said he was disappointed that the police were slow to establish a motive and believed the attack may have been “politically motivated”.
He added: “I understand that the police have to do the investigations, but it’s very upsetting that it takes so long to know who did it and if there was any motivation behind it because it makes people wonder.”
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