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Europe|‘It Was My School’: Sweden Shooting Site Was at Heart of a Diverse Community
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/world/europe/sweden-mass-shooting-community.html
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One day after the killings at an adult educational center, some gathered to lay flowers and come to grips with the violence.
By Christina Anderson and Lynsey Chutel
Christina Anderson reported from Orebro, Sweden, and Lynsey Chutel from London.
Feb. 5, 2025Updated 1:52 p.m. ET
On a typical day, the Risbergska educational center in Orebro, Sweden, would be thrumming with students gathering to attend construction and child care classes and Swedish language instruction for immigrants.
On Wednesday, a day after a mass shooting left at least 11 people dead and sent shock waves throughout Sweden, the school was empty as the community tried to come to terms with the violence. Some still waited for news of their loved ones’ fate; the police had not released the identities of the victims, or the shooter.
“These people who were killed here yesterday, they had dreams to become doctors, nurses, engineers, plumbers or something else,” said Shams Ulqamar Andesh, standing outside the campus where he had spent four years learning Swedish.
A university town with a 13th-century castle, Orebro has a population of 160,000. In recent years it has become home to immigrants from 165 countries, according to the municipality’s website.
The Risbergska educational center, which caters to about 2,000 adult students and offers vocational classes and lessons for adults studying for a high school diploma, had become a key resource for newly arrived immigrants, those gathered there on Wednesday said.
Mr. Andesh, 42, moved to Sweden from Afghanistan in 2012. His time at the educational center had helped him land a job as a truck driver for the national postal service, and his wife became a nurses’ aide after attending classes there.
