MALM: The man who has died in a shooting at a shopping centre in Sweden was the target of the attack, police said on Saturday.

A man and a woman were wounded in a shooting at a mall in the southern city of Malmo on Friday, with the man eventually succumbing to his injuries and the woman hospitalised.

On Saturday, the chief of Malmo police, Petra Stenkula, told a press conference that “Actually, everything leads us to believe that this man was the target of this execution.” Police have said that they have arrested the 15-year-old suspected shooter.

The woman victim, who was in serious condition, was thought to have been a passerby. Police consider the shooting to be “an isolated criminal incident” and have excluded any terror links.

“Firing in shopping mall is absolutely pitiless with a total disregard for others’ lives,” Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson told a press conference while on the campaign trail in Malmo.

In July, three people were killed in a shooting in a shopping mall in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, around 30 kilometres (18 miles) from Malmo. Crime has become an important issue weeks ahead of elections.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2022