Tributes take place as Sweden school shooting death toll rises to 11

Tributes were laid early Wednesday at the site of Sweden’s worst ever mass shooting, which left at least 11 people dead, including the gunman, and at least five seriously wounded at an adult education centre west of Stockholm.

Officials warned that the death toll could rise.

Candles were lit and flowers laid in memory of the victims across the road from the school, as police helicopters circled above the heavily policed scene.

A witness to the shooting said he and his fellow students barricaded themselves for over two hours in a classroom with his teacher and colleagues as the shooter targeted victims outside.

Student Andreas Sundling said his class had just started when they heard a commotion outside.

“At first we thought the people were fighting outside and maybe, I don’t know, throwing chairs and tables,” he told Sky News in an interview.

“Then we heard people screaming. And then the people in my class, they realised that something is wrong here and we came to the conclusion that it’s a shooting.”

Sundling said the group blocked the door with tables and chairs then waited for more than two hours before police came and knocked down the door.

“When they took us out from the classroom and when I passed the entrance to the school, I looked down and there was blood everywhere,” he recounted.

Gunman likely acted alone

The gunman’s motive hadn’t been determined by early Wednesday as the Scandinavian nation — where gun violence at schools is very rare — reeled from the attack.

The school, called Campus Risbergska, offers primary and secondary educational classes for adults age 20 and older, Swedish-language classes for immigrants, vocational training and programmes for people with intellectual disabilities.

It is on the outskirts of Örebro, which is about 200 kilometres west of Stockholm.

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at the Royal Palace and government buildings.

Roberto Eid Forest, head of the local police, told reporters that the suspected gunman was among the dead.

There were no warnings beforehand, and police believe the perpetrator acted alone.

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Police haven’t said if the man was a student at the school.

Though they haven’t published a possible motive, authorities said there were no suspected connections to terrorism at this point.

Police raided the suspect’s home after Tuesday’s shooting, but it wasn’t immediately clear what they found.