The annual virtue-signalling festival known as ‘Earth Hour’ won’t be celebrated in one Swedish town this year, thanks to a sex-crime epidemic sweeping the municipality.

The small Swedish town of Östersund — population 44,300 — is presently living in a state of fear. Police have instructed women to not go outside alone at night following a spate of sex attacks, and police patrol in search of the perpetrators who have so far avoided capture.

There have now been 14 separate reports of sex attacks in the town, with victims ranging from grown women to 10-year-old girls. Police have refused to release details of the suspects they are seeking — as is usual in a country where police took the decision last year to combat racism by not discussing the ethnicities of crime suspects — but victims have described “foreign origin” attackers.

The danger is considered so great the symbolic act of turning the town’s municipal lights off for one hour is considered too much of a risk, and police have requested the event be cancelled. The final decision was taken in consultation with local officers on Tuesday, with Social Democrat spokesman for the local council Ann-Sofie Andersson remarking:

“Earth Hour is a good and important event, but this year we chose to have the street lights on in view of what has happened. We want everyone to feel safe”.

Sweden Television News reports the comments of Chief Constable Stephen Jerand, who said: “We from the police think it’s a very wise move and that the municipality made a good decision. Keeping the lights on creates security and is in line with our common efforts to increase security under current conditions”.

Östersund hit the headlines earlier this month after local police warned women to stay indoors at night after a sudden rash of sex assaults. Police are investigating the attempted rape of two ten year old girls at a bus stop, molestations, beatings, and nearly a dozen other attacks.

Aftonbladet reports that groups of volunteers have even joined police out on the streets at night in their patrols.

Locals have pointed to the large migrant camp on the outskirts of the town which houses 500. It is not the first time migrants from that camp have made headlines — the first consignment of redistributed migrants were sent from Italy to Östersund by the European Union in 2015.

Of the 33 migrants who were to be sent to Östersund from Italy, 14 escaped before they could be put onto the plane, and vanished. The remainder had to be kept under “lock and key” until the relocation ceremony and photo-call at Rome airport could take place, as was reported by Breitbart London at the time.

Sweden was one of the first countries to sign up to the WWF ‘Earth Hour’ back in 2008. The event seeks to raise awareness of climate change by turning the lights off worldwide for one hour a year, but the event has been mocked by sceptics as the symbolic use of candles to substitute the electric light is said to be much more polluting.

Earth Hour Sweden is calling on the country to become “100% fossil free” and to halve meat consumption. A letter to the left-wing Swedish government from the organisation calls for an “ambitious” climate policy and for the Swedish government to use its influence at the European Union to force other European countries to adopt these policies too.

Oliver Lane and Raheem Kassam Discuss Earth Hour On Breitbart Daily: