Breaking: Truck rams store, crowd in Stockholm, three dead; Update: Swedish PM: "Sweden has been attacked"

Sketchy details so far, but police report that three people have died after a truck crashed into a crowded store in Stockholm, Sweden. No indications have emerged about the motive for the crash, but its similarity to attacks in London and France have some wondering whether it was a deliberate attack:

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Broadcasts in Sweden report that shots were fired in the aftermath of the attack, Fox News reports:

A truck as has driven into a crowd at a shopping center in central Stockholm, killing at least three people and injuring several, local media report.

Swedish radio said Friday that three people have been killed in the crash and Swedish broadcaster SVT said shots have been fired.

Sky News reports that the coming truck caused a panic after it ran over two people, apparently before crashing into the storefront:

According to the Swedish paper Aftonbladet, one eye witness in the shopping mall said she saw “hundreds of people” running for their lives.

Another witness described the panic when the truck came out of nowhere: “I went to the main street when a big truck came out of nowhere. I could not see if anyone was driving it but it got out of control. I saw at least two being run over. I ran as fast as I could from there”.

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Remember when watching this story that first reports often contain erroneous details. I’d especially take the “shots fired” report with some skepticism without further corroboration. We’ll be following this story as developments emerge.

Update: ABC has footage of people fleeing from the area:

AFP suggests that Swedish intelligence has called it a “truck attack,” although that may be AFP’s assumption in play, too:

Update: Sky News also hears that it’s an attack and not an accident:

Update: The BBC and NBC also now report that Sweden’s security services have called this a deliberate attack. The number of dead is still in question, but Reuters reports that one witness “saw a number of body-like forms covered by blankets at the scene of the incident.” Expect the death toll to rise over the next couple of hours.

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Update: The Swedish prime minister is not mincing words:

“Sweden has been attacked. Everything points to a terrorist attack,” Prime Minister Stefan Löfven told reporters.

That will make for an uncomfortable national conversation in Sweden. The Associated Press, meanwhile, reports that police have one suspect in custody. [See update below.]

Update: In another parallel to previous truck attacks, the suspect hijacked the vehicle:

Photos from the scene showed a beer truck sticking out of the department store, and Aftonbladet daily reported that Swedish beer maker Spendrups said one of its trucks had been carjacked earlier Friday.

Friday’s incident is near the site of a December 2010 attack in which Taimour Abdulwahab, a Swedish citizen who lived in Britain, detonated a suicide bomb, killing himself and injuring two others.

Abdulwahab rigged a car with explosives in the hope that the blast would drive people to Drottninggatan — the street hit Friday — where he would set off devices strapped to his chest and back. The car bomb never went off, and Abdulwahab died when one of his devices exploded among panicked Christmas shoppers.

The attack on the Christmas village in Germany also used a hijacked truck.

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Update: Interestingly, ABC reports that the original driver from whom the truck was hijacked was not injured. That’s an odd development in a terror attack.

Update: Remember that early reports are often erroneous. It turns out that no arrests have been made yet:

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