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Crime

Blast kills one in Stockholm

January 7, 2018

The blast went off at a Stockholm metro station after a man picked up an object, which "promptly exploded." Police said a murder investigation has been launched, but the incident was not thought to be terror-related.

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Police search the area outside a subway station in Stockholm
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Montgomery

A man died and one woman was injured in an explosion outside a metro station in a Stockholm suburb in Sweden on Sunday, police said.

The man, in his 60s, suffered fatal injuries from the blast when "according to witnesses he picked up an object off the ground, which promptly exploded," police spokesman Sven-Erik Olsson told AFP.

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The man died in hospital and the woman, aged 45, sustained minor injuries to her face and legs, police said.

The explosion occurred mid-morning at the Varby Gard station in the suburb of Huddinge, south of the Swedish capital.

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Daily Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet said the blast was thought to have been caused by a hand grenade but did not name a source. Police declined to confirm the newspaper's report.

"There is obviously something that has exploded strongly ... but we will have to wait for the technical investigation," a police spokesperson said, adding that a murder investigation had been launched.

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"It is too early to say. Technicians are still working on it. Nothing indicates that the couple were targeted," said Olsson.

Police said they did not think the incident was terrorism-related.

law/rc (AFP, Reuters)