Sweden election: Gang shootings cast shadow over vote
By Maddy Savage
BBC News, Uppsala
A sharp rise in gun violence and gang crime has become a leading issue in what Sweden's media have described as one of the ugliest election campaigns in history.
"Right at this spot here we had a shooting about this time last year," says Martin Gunér, a police officer in the suburb of Gottsunda, just a 15-minute drive from the medieval spires of the university city of Uppsala.
Gottsunda is notorious for drugs and gun battles, and classified by police as one of the 10 most vulnerable areas in Sweden.
But despite Sweden's right-wing media labelling it a "no-go zone", parents here cycle toddlers home from preschool while middle-class families at the local shopping centre pile groceries into electric cars and bicycle baskets.
Some high-profile arrests in the area have helped calm the violence in recent months. But, according to a 2021 report by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, gun crime across Sweden is increasing at a faster rate than anywhere else in Europe.
So far this year, 47 people have died from shootings in the country - more than for the whole of 2021.
"At first they'd shoot just to injure and make people afraid, but now they're shooting to kill," Mr Gunér says.
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