Sweden raises terror threat level to high after recent Koran burnings, ‘priority target” for attacks
- The Scandinavian country’s security service said the situation has deteriorated and the risk of terrorism is now at level 4 on its 5-point scale
- Citizens abroad and businesses linked to the country have been asked to ‘be attentive and aware of the information the authorities communicate’
Sweden raised its terrorism alert level on Thursday one notch to the second-highest, following a recent string of public desecrations of the Koran in the Scandinavian country by a handful of anti-Islam activists, sparking angry demonstrations across Muslim countries.
Sweden has in recent weeks asked citizens abroad and businesses linked to the country to “be attentive and aware of the information the authorities communicate”, following a string of public burnings of copies of the Koran by an Iraqi asylum seeker.
The Scandinavian country’s domestic security service, SAPO, said the overall security situation has deteriorated and the risk of terrorism in Sweden was now at level four or “high” on its five-point scale, a first since 2016.
“We are in a deteriorating situation and this threat will continue for a long time,” SAPO head Charlotte von Essen said, adding that “the threat of attacks from actors within violent Islamism has increased during the year”.
She said that Sweden is currently regarded as “a priority target” for such attacks.
While urging people in Sweden to continue to live “normally”, Von Essen stressed that there wasn’t a single incident that led to the height