Suicide bomber who blew himself up in Stockholm killing himself and wounding two is named as an Iraqi man

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

The suicide bomber who blew himself up yesterday was an Iraqi man who graduated from a British university. Whitehall sources confirm that Taimour-Al-Abdaly, a 28-year-old man who lived in southern Sweden, was the owner of the car that exploded in central Stockholm last night. His Facebook profile lists him as having studied a BSc in sports therapy at the University of Bedfordshire in 2004.

Swedish police confirmed that the two explosions that killed one person and injured two more, causing panic among Christmas shoppers, were a terrorist attack.

They said last night's explosions were the result of "terror crimes". "We are investigating this as terror crimes according to Swedish law. We are still investigating the case. In this situation, we have not raised the security [threat] level," police spokesman Anders Thornberg said.

The Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, said in a message on Twitter: "Most worrying attempt at terrorist attack in crowded part of central Stockholm. Failed – but could have been truly catastrophic."

A Swedish news agency said it had received an email warning before the blasts in which a threat was made against Sweden's population, linked to the country's military presence in Afghanistan and the five-year-old case of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad by Swedish artist Lars Vilks.

The TT agency said the email, which contained audio files in Swedish and Arabic, was also sent to Sweden's security police and was received 10 minutes before the blasts.

The first explosion caused panic in the busy street of Drottninggatan at around 4.50pm local time when a car containing gas canisters burst into flames, causing minor injuries to two people.

Asked if a man found dead at the site of the second blast, about 300 metres away, blew himself up, police spokesman Kjell Lindgren said: "It is possible."

Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper reported that the man was carrying pipe bombs, as well as a backpack full of nails, although this has not been confirmed by the authorities.

A witness interviewed by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper said something appeared to have blown up against the man's abdomen.

"He had no injuries to his face or the rest of his body and the shops around him were not damaged," he said.

The witness, a paramedic identified only as Pascal, said he removed a "Palestinian scarf" from the man's face in an attempt to free up his airways. Next to the man's body was a two-metre piece of metal piping.

Gabriel Gabiro, a former employee of Associated Press, was inside a watch shop on the opposite side of the street from the second explosion when it went off and saw people running from the site.

"There was a man lying on the ground with blood coming out in the area of his belly, and with his personal belongings scattered around him."

"It shook the store that I was in," he said of the blast. "Then there was smoke and gunpowder coming into the store."

Sweden, which has so far not had major terrorist attacks of the type suffered by the UK in July 2005 and Spain in March 2004, raised its terror alert level from low to elevated in October because of a "shift in activities" among Swedish-based groups.

However, the security services said at the time that the threat remained low compared with that in other European countries and that no attack was imminent.

"Our actions will speak for themselves," said the email warning. "Now your children, daughters and sisters will die like our brothers and sisters and children are dying."

The sender referred to Swedish silence about the troops in Afghanistan and the controversial caricature by Vilks that showed Muhammad with the body of a dog. "As long as you don't end your war against Islam and the humiliation against the prophet and with your stupid support to Lars Vilks the pig."

About 500 Swedish troops are stationed in Afghanistan, primarily in the north of the country.

Elements in Somalia linked to al-Qaida have been recruiting young people from Sweden to fight in the war in the horn of Africa, the security services have said.

The Swedish prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, last month outlined plans to pull Swedish combat troops out of Afghanistan between 2012 and 2014 and maintain a largely civilian support presence afterwards.

"Our ambition is that Sweden's presence in Afghanistan should shift from a combative role to a more supportive role," he said.

The troop plans have been the subject of negotiations between Reinfeldt's centre-right government, which has ruled as a minority since September, and opposition parties whose support has been needed for a bill to make the strategy a reality.

A poll released after a Swedish soldier was killed in September, the fifth since troops were deployed in Afghanistan in 2002, showed that nearly half of Swedes want the troops to come home.