Sweden in flames: As gangs of migrants riot for five nights running... the Utopian boats of a multicultural success story turn to ashes



Fifth night of violent riots in Stockholm saw schools destroyed

Over 70 incidents reported overnight including a torched police station



Turmoil began Sunday night after police shot a man in Husby suburb



Incidents in other parts of Sweden spark fear riots are spreading

It is supposed to be the model multicultural state. But Sweden is facing problems of its own after gangs of immigrants spent a fifth consecutive night rioting in Stockholm.

Officers are battling to keep the capital under control after hundreds of cars were torched, a police station set alight and fire services kept from a major blaze by a stone-throwing mob of youths.

To make matters worse, rioting has now spread to Sweden’s two other major cities, Gothenburg and Malmo.

Torched: Hundreds of cars like this Volvo have been set alight in Stockholm during the orgy of violence

The disturbances, which have lasted longer than the riots in England in the summer of 2011, started last week after police shot dead a foreign-born pensioner who threatened to attack them with a machete.

Left-wing activists came forward to accuse police of racism – a charge strongly denied by the Stockholm force.

Growing unrest turned to violence last Sunday in a north-western suburb called Husby – where more than 80 per cent of the residents are from overseas, mostly Turkey, Somalia and the Middle East.

Trouble then spread to some of the city’s most deprived areas, shattering the country’s proud claim that it is a template for a successful and ethnically diverse society.

No end: Police force secure the area as firemen extinguish a blaze in a primary school in the Stockholm suburb of Kista as the riots continued for a fifth night

On fire: Firemen extinguish burning cars in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby early on Thursday night as the fifth night's violence began

Documenting horror: Residents in Rinkeby photograph the burning cars, which were set on fire in a central part of the suburb north of Stockholm

On Thursday night there were 90 separate blazes in the capital. Thirty cars were torched and there were eight arrests – mostly of people in their early 20s.

In earlier attacks, groups of up to 100 rioters targeted schools, nurseries and shops – breaking windows and setting buildings ablaze.

In Skogas, south of Stockholm, emergency services were kept from a fire in a restaurant when a gang of youths pelted fire engines with rocks.

And in nearby Ragsved a violent mob set fire to a police station – the second to come under attack in two days.

Destruction: Friday morning's riots, which also saw a second primary school set on fire, resulted in several shops wrecked, multiple vehicle fires across the city fringes and stones thrown at police

Aftermath: The primary school was completely destroyed by the fire which is being treated by police as arson

Lars Bystrom, a Stockholm police spokesman, said: ‘Such fires are mainly lit to lure the police to the scene, who are then attacked.’



He admitted officers have been forced to change their tactics, saying: ‘Now if there is a small fire that is not likely to spread, and there is no risk to life, we will send out a patrol and keep an eye on it from a distance.

‘But we are not going to bring in the fire brigade unless it’s really dangerous.’

The attacks on emergency service workers have led to private security companies telling employees to stay at home, as mobs have started attacking anyone wearing a uniform.

Several public transport routes have also been cancelled after rioters started hurling petrol bombs at buses.



Stockholm burning: A car is set ablaze in a suburb north of the Swedish capital last night

Chaos: Police have been under attack by large mobs, pelting them and fire services with bricks and heavy rocks, preventing them from putting out fires across the city's fringes

The Foreign Office and the US embassy have warned visitors to stay away from certain suburbs.

Government leaders have been stunned by the ferocity of the violence in a country which has long been touted as a paragon of social justice.

For decades, supporters of multiculturalism have pointed to Sweden as a classic example of a society which allows immigrants to continue practising their own culture while living peacefully alongside their host communities.

Around 15 per cent of Sweden’s 9.5million inhabitants were born outside the country.

The second largest group of immigrants, after the Finns, are Iraqis – numbering more than 125,000. Former Yugoslavs total over 160,000 and Iranians almost 65,000.



As well as setting cars ablaze, rioters also attacked a police station and a school and nursery

The unrest appears to have been sparked after police shot and killed a man wielding a machete on Sunday

While Sweden is still relatively affluent, with living standards among the highest in Europe, tension has grown in recent years as the country struggles to cope with rising youth unemployment and an ever-growing influx of foreigners.

Unemployment for people born in Sweden is only 6 per cent, but unemployment among those born outside Sweden currently stands at 16 per cent. The country’s long-standing ‘open arms’ policy for asylum seekers has brought it to a position where it has one of the world’s highest proportions of asylum seekers relative to its population. Among 44 industrialised countries, Sweden ranked fourth in the total number of asylum seekers and second in the number of asylum seekers relative to its population, according to figures from the United Nations. The violence has sparked debate in the country on the effect of the government's social policies

Policemen secure an apartment building after youths rioted in Husby, northern Stockholm Government leaders have struggled to explain or control the outbreak of violence, but the anti-immigrant, nationalist Sweden Democrats have soared to third place in the polls. The party’s rise reflects the concerns of many native-born Swedes that their country is rapidly changing for the worse. Sweden was ruled for decades by the Left-wing Social Democratic Party which has been committed to the creation of an egalitarian society since it was founded in the late 19th century. It was ousted from power by the current ruling centre-Right coalition, which has failed to make major changes in the country once dubbed ‘the most successful society the world has ever known’.