Clashes have erupted in many Swedish cities for the fourth day, spurred by the suspected burning of a Quran by a far-right, anti-immigrant organisation. According to local media, three individuals were hurt on Sunday in the eastern city of Norrköping when police fired warning shots at rioters.
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At least 17 persons were detained after several vehicles were set on fire. During a far-right rally in the southern city of Malmo on Saturday, vehicles, including a bus, were set on fire. Earlier, the Iranian and Iraqi governments summoned Swedish envoys to condemn the burning.
Rasmus Paludan, the leader of the Danish-Swedish Stram Kurs, or Hard Line, movement, stated he had burnt Islam’s most precious document and would do so again.
At least 16 police officers were reported hurt, and many police cars were wrecked, during unrest on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in areas where the far-right group planned gatherings, including the Stockholm suburbs and the cities of Linköping and Norrköping.
Paludan had promised another gathering in Norrköping on Sunday, leading counter-demonstrators to assemble there, according to Deutsche Welle.
According to local police, they fired warning bullets after being attacked, and three persons were presumably struck by ricochets. Protests over Stram Kurs’s plans to burn the Quran have previously turned violent in Sweden. Protesters set automobiles to fire in Malmö in 2020, and shopfronts were destroyed.
Paludan, who was sentenced to a month in prison in Denmark in 2020 for crimes involving bigotry, has previously attempted to organise similar Quran burnings in other European nations such as France, Norway and Belgium
