'Racist motives' behind Swedish school attack

Kim Hjelmgaard | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Two killed in sword attack on Sweden school A masked man brandishing a sword killed a teacher and a student and seriously wounded two other people at a school in Sweden before being shot and killed Video provided by AFP

Authorities said Friday that the attacker who stabbed to death a teacher and pupil at a school in Sweden before being shot and killed by police had a racist motive.

"We are convinced that the assailant was driven by racist motives when he carried out the act," police chief Niclas Hallgren told Swedish public radio.

"We have reached this conclusion based on what we found when we searched his apartment and his behavior during the act, and also on the basis of how he selected his victims," he said.

The incident took place Thursday morning in the southern Swedish industrial town of Trollhattan, near Gothenburg.

Neither the victims nor the attacker, a 21-year-old masked man, have been identified by police.

According to Swedish media, the assailant, armed with a sword and wearing a Darth Vader-like mask, posed for photos with students before beginning his deadly rampage in the halls of the Kronan school.

In English: Three dead after knife attack in Trollhättan https://t.co/6okBFtP4re pic.twitter.com/pqRA5OFsFw — Dagens Nyheter (@dagensnyheter) October 22, 2015

Trollhattan has a large immigrant community and a majority of the students at Kronan are foreign-born.

Many students thought the attacker was playing a Halloween prank.

Sweden’s last school attack was in 1961, when a 17-year-old man opened fire at a school dance hall in the country's southwest. One student was killed and seven were wounded in that incident.