Sixteen-year-old detained after three people killed in Sweden shooting

A 16-year-old has been detained on suspicion of shooting and killing three people in Sweden, prosecutors have said.

A murder investigation was launched following the incident in the city of Uppsala on Tuesday.

The teenager is one of several people being interrogated as part of the investigation, Swedish police said.

The force added that the shooting took place at a hair salon and they believe it to have been an “isolated event”.

Police also said they do not believe the shooting was linked to the extensive celebrations for Walpurgis night, a pagan festival marking the arrival of spring, which were expected in Uppsala on Wednesday.

Witnesses earlier told local media they heard five shots and saw people in the area running to take cover.

A spokesperson for the force said it had information that someone had left the scene on an electric scooter – it was unclear whether they were a suspect, witness, or otherwise.

Electric scooters have been used several times as a mode of transport after gang shootings in the country.

In a statement on Tuesday, Swedish justice minister Gunnar Strommer said: “A brutal act of violence has occurred in central Uppsala… this is at the same time as the whole of Uppsala has begun Walpurgis Night.

“What has happened is extremely serious.”

In February, 10 people were killed in the city of Orebro in the country’s deadliest ever mass shooting after a 35-year-old opened fire in an adult learning centre.

It has tightened laws and given more powers to police and after the Orebro shooting it vowed to tighten gun laws as well.