GETTY•AFTONBLADET.SE The gang was targeting migrants

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The gang, dressed all in black, had been handing out leaflets to passers-by around Stockholm’s main train station declaring “enough now” before the men began targeting migrants and anyone who did not look Swedish. The group, believed to have links to Sweden’s football hooligan scene, had also donned black armbands before the attack.

The leaflet referred to the killing of Alexandra Mezher, 22, who was working at a refugee centre in Mölndal when she was fatally stabbed after a quarrel broke out among asylum seekers. A 15-year-old boy from Somalia was later arrested on suspicion of murder. The pamphlet said: “All over the country, reports are pouring in that the police can no longer cope with preventing and investigating the crimes which strike the Swedish people.

“In some cases, for example, in the latest murder of a woman employed at a home for so called ‘unaccompanied minor refugees’ in Molndal, it goes as far as the National Police Commissioner choosing to show more sympathy for the perpetrator than the victim. “But we refuse to accept the repeated assaults and harassment against Swedish women. “We refuse to accept the destruction of our once safe society. “When our political leadership and police show more sympathy for murderers than for their victims, there are no longer any excuses to let it happen without protest.

GETTY Out of 18,615 refugees who entered Sweden in 2015 only 2,555 were girls

“When Swedish streets are no longer safe to walk on for normal Swedes, it is our DUTY to fix the problem. “This is why, today, 200 Swedish men gathered to take a stand against the north African ‘street children’ who are running rampage in and around the capital’s central station. “Police have clearly showed that they lack the means to stop their progress and we see no other way than to hand down the punishment they deserve ourselves. “The justice system has left walk over and the contract of society is therefore broken – it is now every Swedish man’s duty to defend our public spaces against the imported criminality.”

AFTONBLADET.SE Masked men targeted migrants

AFTONBLADET.SE The rampage is captured on camera

The author of the leaflet also called on other Swedes to follow suit. The leaflet said: “Those who gathered today are neither your politician, your journalist or your policeman. “We are your father, your brother, your husband, your colleague, your friend and your neighbour. “Swedish men and women deserve safety in their everyday life and we are therefore calling on all others who also see the problem to follow in our footsteps, both in Stockholm and in other places around the country. “For a better future together.”

GETTY Alexandra Mezher

GETTY Police in Sweden say resources are stretched

Towe Hagg, Stockholm police spokesman, said the mob gathered with the intention of attacking refugee children. He said: 'Police are now looking into the leaflets that were handed out by masked people before the attack.” Authorities have confirmed that “at least” 50 people attacked migrants and witnesses who saw the incidents spoke of their terror. One witness told the Aftonbladet newspaper they had been so scared they had run away. They said: “I saw maybe three people who were beaten. “That was no football brawl or something similar.

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