STOCKHOLM — No one died except for the suspected bomber, but two explosions in Sweden’s capital tore at the fabric of this tolerant and open nation — a society that hadn’t seen a terrorist attack in more than three decades.
Two people were wounded in central Stockholm on Saturday in what appeared to be the first suicide bombing in the history of Sweden, which has been spared the major terrorist strikes seen in several other European countries.
A car exploded in the middle of the seasonal shopping frenzy, shooting flames and causing several smaller blasts as people ran screaming from the scene. The blast that killed the alleged bomber came moments later a few blocks away from the car explosion on a busy pedestrian street.
Experts said the alleged bomber probably didn’t succeed in detonating all the explosives and could have caused much greater damage.
While police haven’t confirmed Saturday’s attack was motivated by Islamist views, an audio file sent to Swedish news agency TT shortly before the blast referred to jihad, Sweden’s military presence in Afghanistan and a cartoon by a Swedish artist that depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a dog, enraging many Muslims.
It hasn’t been verified that the speaker is the person who set off the explosive, but police have said they are investigating that possibility.
“Now the Islamic state has been created. We now exist here in Europe and in Sweden. We are a reality,” the voice said in the file, submitted to The Associated Press by TT. “I don’t want to say more about this. Our actions will speak for themselves.”
Swedish Prime Minister Fred rik Reinfeldt on Sunday said the attack was “unacceptable” but urged Swedes not to jump to “premature conclusions.”
“Sweden is an open society . . . which has stated a wish that people should be able to have different backgrounds, believe in different gods . . . and live side by side in our open society,” Reinfeldt said.
Swedes, with a tradition of welcoming immigrants and a culture of transparency, began questioning the veracity of their self-image of being a secure nation after the 1986 murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme. In 2003, the fatal stabbing of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in a department store was a wake-up call for many.
But there have been no major terrorist strikes.
“We had a terrorist attack in the 1970s from the Rote Armee Friktion of Germany, but if this is a suicide bomber, it is the first time in Sweden,” security police spokesman Anders Thornberg told AP. “It’s very serious, and it’s very tragic that these things have come to Sweden too.”
Magnus Norell, a terrorism expert at the Swedish Defense Research Agency, said it was just a matter of time before Sweden was hit by terrorists.
“Sweden isn’t an isolated island, even if we might think that sometimes,” he said. “We have only been lucky so far.”
