Teenager is arrested in Turkey over firebombing of cars in Sweden | Daily Mail Online

A teenager has been arrested in Turkey in connection with the systematic firebombing of cars across Sweden earlier this week.

The man, born in 1999, had fled Sweden yesterday and could be apprehended upon arrival in Turkey, taking the total number of arrests over the arson attacks to three. 

More than 100 cars burned in several Swedish cities, including the capital Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo, as gangs of masked youths went rampaging in a series of arson attacks believed to have been coordinated on social media. 

A number of boys under the age of 15 have also been apprehended, but have due to their young age been released into the care of their parents.

Damage: Burned cars are pictured at Frolunda Square in Gothenburg, Sweden, the morning after a series of coordinated arson attacks

Multiple targets: A person walks past burned cars parked at Frolunda Square in Gothenburg, after a night when cars burned in all Sweden's major cities, including Stockholm and Malmo

Overnight, four incidents took place on western Sweden, including one in the same area of Gothenburg which came under attack the night before.

Two cars burned in the south-western suburb of Västra Frölunda, and news agency TT reports that witnesses have seen two youths set the vehicles on fire before fleeing the scene.

At around the same time, a car burned in Mölndal outside Gothenburg, and one in  Borås, some 40 miles west of the city. Police said these were also believed to have been set alight. 

In the wake of the fires, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven reacted with anger and did not hold back during a radio interview on Tuesday morning.

'I'm furious, for real. My question to these people is 'what the f*** are you doing?',' he told Sveriges Radio P1.

'You're ruining things for yourselves, your parents and your neighbourhoods,' Lofven said, adding the incident 'looked very coordinated, almost like a military operation'. 

Dramatic footage has emerged of cars being set alight by masked attackers in Sweden

Police said they were dealing with fires at a car park near a shopping centre and specialist hospital at Frölunda Torg, south-west of Gothenburg.

Around 60 vehicles had been vandalised in total, Swedish television reported, with stones also thrown at police by masked men

'Sweden has tolerated this for too long. This must end now,' Ulf Kristersson, leader of the conservative opposition party, the Moderates, wrote on his Facebook account. 

In Gothenburg and surrounding towns of Lysekil, Falkenberg and Trollhättan, a total of around 100 cars have been demolished.

In Stockholm, and Uppsala, some 45 miles north of the capital, a total of 13 cars were set alight in a handful locations on Tuesday morning. 

Gothenburg police say they have identified some of the culprits and and two people have so far been arrested.

'What the f*** are you doing?': Prime Minister Stefan Lofven reacted with anger

'We have already started making calls to the parents of the youths who were taking part in this,' Gothenburg police spokesperson Ulla Brehm told SVT.

'We chose not to arrest anyone on the spot, but have identified them.'

Ms Brehm could not confirm that the series of identical car fires had been orchestrated via social media but said that 'the fact that it has been co-ordinated in so many places indicate it'. 

All culprits in the attacks have been described by witnesses as wearing dark clothing and hoods. 

Dramatic footage showed youths targeting vehicles in at a major shopping centre and hospital car park at Frölunda Torg, south-west Gothenburg. 

The area around Frölunda Torg have seen several deadly shootings in the past two years as local gangs have been at war over drug trade in Gothenburg. 

Due to the criminal gang activity and shootings, Vastra Frölunda was last year deemed as one of the more violent areas in Sweden's second largest city.

The two people arrested Tuesday, aged between 16 and 21, are both from Vastra Frölunda. 

The largest group of youngsters apparently gathered in Kronogården in Trollhättan north of Gothenburg where as many as 40 people threw stones and started fires. 

Kronogården has also seen a rise in gang violence in recent years. 

It made international news in 2015, when 21-year-old Anton Lundin Pettersson killed three people at a local school, in a racist attack targeting Kronogården due to its high immigrant population.

Pictures showed cars on fire in Sweden as authorities tackled multiple blazes in the country 

Police in Trollhättan yesterday identified three people in connection with Monday evening's violence.

Three teenage boys were found with bangers in their pockets, but as they are all under the age of 15, they were released into the care of their parents or guardians, Aftonbladet reports.

There were also reports of young people setting cars on fire in Hjällbo, to the north east of Gothenburg, in Malmo, at the southern tip of the country, and in the city of Helsingborg.

Emergency services were tackling the apparent outbreak of violence with no injuries reported, Swedish police said. 

The violence comes just three weeks before Swedish voters go to the polls in a general election. 

Systematically setting cars on fire has become a associated with gang violence in suburbs in Sweden's major cities. 

Last year, 1,457 cars were 'deliberately' set on fire across Sweden, compared to 1,641 in 2016, according to the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency's figures.

Last year in February, two days after US President Donald Trump's baffling comments linking crime to immigration in Sweden, riots broke out in the immigrant-heavy northern Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby.

Dozens of youths clashed with police after they arrested a suspected drug dealer in Rinkeby. The rioters threw stones at police, burned cars and looted shops.

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