Threats to Sweden have increased after recent desecrations of the Holy Quran, the country’s government said on Tuesday, adding it had strengthened border controls to give police wider authority to stop and search people as a result.

A new law, effective from the start of August, gives police extended powers to perform checks on and around the country’s borders, including body searches, and allows for increased electronic surveillance.

“Border controls are a measure that gives us the conditions to identify people coming into Sweden who could represent a threat to security,” Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told a news conference.

“The purpose is to strengthen police work and prevent threats to domestic security,” Strommer said.

Sweden and Denmark have seen a string of protests in recent weeks, in which copies of the Holy Quran were burned or otherwise damaged, prompting outrage in Muslim countries and demands that the Nordic governments put a stop to the burnings.

More burnings took place on Monday and both countries said they were examining ways to legally limit such acts in a bid to de-escalate tensions.

Danish security police said on Monday, that like in Sweden, the country was seeing an elevated risk of attacks as a result of the crisis.

On Tuesday, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the situation was “dangerous”, “complicated” and “used by people who wanted Sweden harm”, including by Russia who may be using the situation to its advantage.

“It may be to prevent a Swedish Nato accession,” Kristersson told the news conference.

“People with very weak ties to Sweden should not be able to come to Sweden to commit crimes,” Kristersson said, adding an official decision to step up border controls was expected on Thursday.

Sweden applied to join Nato in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but the application is yet to be ratified by the Turkish parliament.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said he would work to get Sweden’s application approved but also warned it wouldn’t happen as long as copies of the Holy Quran were being burnt in Sweden.

Kristersson said it was important to de-escalate the situation and urged people to use freedom of speech responsibly and respectfully.

The Swedish government was also looking into changes that could allow police to stop burnings in public if they posed a threat to national security, the prime minister said.

Still, he added, sweeping changes to freedom of speech laws were not on the table.

“We stand up for the Swedish freedom of speech,” Kristersson told a news conference.

A day ago, the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) convened in an extraordinary session to discuss the recent developments where it strongly condemned the Holy Quran’s burnings.

It also said in a statement after the meeting ended that it called upon member states to take appropriate action, whether political or economic, in countries where the Holy Quran was being desecrated.

After the meeting, the Danish and Swedish foreign ministers separately wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that they would continue their dialogue with the OIC.

Additional input from AFP.