STOCKHOLM: Sweden is ‘strengthening security measures’ for Israeli interests and the Jewish community in the country. Police informed of these developments on Friday, after gunfire was reported near Israel’s embassy in the capital city of the country (Stockholm).

Police sealed off the area in and around the embassy, carrying out searches in several Stockholm neighbourhoods, after hearing gunshots in the early hours of Friday morning.

“Due to suspected shots near Israel’s embassy in Stockholm, the police are taking security measures (to protect) Israeli and Jewish property and interests across the country” the police department announced, on its website.

Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, Ziv Nevo Kulman, ‘thanked’ the authorities on X “for their immediate reaction and investigation and for enhancing the security measures around our embassy and around the Jewish communities”.

In February, police had discovered a device within the Israeli embassy compound, which the ambassador said was an ‘attempted attack’.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2024