Appearing in the heavily guarded Stockholm District Court wearing a thick green hoodie and holding his head down, Akilov was known to have shown interest in jihadist organisations according to the police.

After Eriksson’s statement, the rest of the hearing was held behind closed doors at the request of the public prosecutor’s office and journalists were told to wait outside.

The announcement came one day after the suspect had demanded that his state-appointed lawyer be replaced with a Sunni Muslim – a request that was refused.

Akilov, a construction worker who had been refused permanent residency in Sweden, was arrested several hours after the attack. He was detained in Marsta, a suburb north of Stockholm.

He had gone underground after his application for Swedish residency was rejected last year, police said.