Several people were wounded on Friday in a sword attack at a Swedish high school.

The perpetrator was shot by the police in the leg, according to Aftonbladet newspaper, and is now in police custody.

Police were alerted to the rampage at The Brinell School in Fagersta, northwest of the capital, Stockholm, at around 2.06pm local time.

‘A call was received regarding a case of ongoing deadly violence at a school in Fagersta,’ the police said in a statement.

‘Police have responded to the scene and one person has been taken into custody.

‘Police are continuing to work at the scene with a number of different resources.

‘The public is urged to respect the roadblocks and listen to police instructions.’

The Fagersta municipality did not specify the number of wounded but said police were searching the school and that other schools in the area had been locked down.

‘An assailant armed with a sword has entered Brinellskolan and wounded several people,’ the Fagersta municipality said in a statement, adding the assailant had been detained by police.

Public broadcaster SVT said ambulances, police cars as well as a police helicopter were outside the school in the small city of about 12,000 inhabitants.

The motives behind the attack are still unclear.

The school has some 450 students, aged 16 to 20.

Police spokesman Pelle Vamstad said authorities would be looking into whether camera footage might turn up that could be used in the preliminary investigation.

The municipality convened a crisis meeting immediately after the incident and specially trained crisis counselors are providing support to the victims and their families.

The government is in close contact with the police following the attack, Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said in a statement to Reuters.

‘We have been informed of a serious incident in Fagersta. The police are on site and working very intensively with the incident,’ Strommer said.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson responded to the attack on X, writing: ‘A serious incident has occurred today in Fagersta at a school, right after the summer break.

‘There are reports of injured people. We do not yet know what lies behind the act, but we know that the police are working very intensively.

‘I want to ask everyone to let the police and emergency services work undisturbed.

‘Our thoughts are with all those affected.’

Sweden’s Minister for Education and Integration, Simona Mohamsson, wrote: ‘I have received terrible news from a school in Fagersta.

‘A police operation is currently underway, and the government is following developments.

‘My thoughts are with all students, teachers, and parents.’

Sweden’s Green Party spokesman Daniel Helldén said: ‘What has happened in Fagersta is terribly tragic.

‘When students and school staff are subjected to violence, it touches us all.’

‘All of Sweden stands together with Fagersta at this difficult time,’ said Labour Party leader Magdalena Andersson, whose centre-left coalition holds a clear lead in opinion polls ahead of next month’s parliamentary election.

Sweden has seen some high-profile attacks at educational institutions.

In February 2025, a 35-year-old man killed 10 people at an adult education centre in Orebro – Sweden’s worst mass shooting.

Police said it was motivated by the killer’s wish to end his life because of financial and psychological woes.

In March 2022, an 18-year-old student fatally stabbed two teachers at a secondary school in the southern city of Malmo.

In 2015, two teachers and a pupil were stabbed to death in a school in the western town of Trollhattan by a masked man with a sword and a large knife.

The 21-year-old perpetrator, who posed with students before starting his killing spree, was shot dead by police.

The attack, which then-Prime Minister Stefan Löfvenplace called a ‘black day for Sweden’, was racially motivated, authorities said.

The attacker picked his victims by their skin colour, according to video evidence seen by police at the time.

‘He chose dark skinned people, not white. We are convinced it was a hate crime with a racist perspective,’ said Niclas Hallgren, the chief of police in Trollhättan.

‘He was dressed in a way that suggested a racist background [and] video at the scene showed he acted in a military fashion. His actions and the way he looked draws the mind to the Nazis,’ Hallgren told journalists.