Explosion in Malmo (Archives)

Explosion at Malmo Jewish community building

Swedish police receive call of explosion at Jewish congregation's building. None hurt; some damage reported

Ynet|Published: 09.28.12 , 09:35

An explosion occurred in the early hours of Friday morning at a building in Malmo's Jewish community in Sweden.

“There has been an explosion. Something has detonated – we are certain of that,” police officer Erik Liljenström told a local paper.

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Police received a call shortly after 1 am. Witnesses said they had heard loud bangs near the congregation building some 15 minutes earlier. When police arrived at the scene they soon established that there had been some sort of explosion and that someone had tried to smash in the door.

There were loose paving stones lying among shards of shattered glass in front of the entrance, according to the paper.

While damage had been caused to the front door, the building had not been damaged in any other way as far as the police could see, but according to witness statements the blasts were heard a few blocks away.

Police spoke to many of the witnesses and cordoned off the area pending the forensic investigation, carried out overnight.

Several independent witnesses said that they had seen two cars leave the area at high speed just after the bangs, Swedish news site 'The Local' reported.

Shortly after 4 am, police announced that they had identified one of the vehicles and brought two men in for questioning.

“We had the license plate of one of the cars and found it some way away from the scene of the crime. The men have been arrested and brought in but we have yet to question them," Peter Martinsson of the Skåne police told Dagens Nyheter (DN).

According to the police, the men are under suspicion of destruction constituting a public danger.

No one was reportedly injured in the attack.

The city of Malmo has a large Muslim immigrant community and has witnessed a sharp rise in hate crimes against Jews since Operation Cast Lead.

The Swedish government has been criticized for failing to provide sufficient security for Malmo's Jewish community and refraining from commenting on the growing anti-Semitism.

Some 20,000 Jews live in Sweden. In the past year a rabbi was attacked in Malmo and several assaults were carried out against the Jewish community.