Stockholm 'terror attack': Manhunt underway after five pedestrians feared killed in lorry attack

At least five people are feared dead after a suspected terror attack which saw a hijacked beer lorry plough into a crowd of pedestrians in Stockholm.

Stefan Lofven, the Swedish Prime Minister, said it appeared the crash was “a terror attack” and the country’s intelligence service confirmed there was “a large number of injured”.

A manhunt is underway for an individual who is thought to have fled to the subway system. According to local media reports, the suspect is wearing a green jacket, white shoes and a grey hoodie

The Prime Minister had earlier said there had been an arrest, but the Reuters news agency is now quoting police saying no one has been detained.

Reports of the incident first emerged on social media shortly after 2pm GMT.

Around 30 minutes later, reports also emerged of a shooting near the site of the crash, although it has not been confirmed whether the two incidents are linked.

At 3.30pm, police also ordered the evacuation of the central train station in Stockholm, according to the TT news agency.

Pools of blood were visible on the street along with bodies covered in blankets in pictures showing the aftermath of the attack.

Paramedics could also be seen tending to the injured near the truck.

“There is total confusion, I do not know how many are injured, many people are totally shocked,” one witness, Leif Arnmar, who was working in the department store, told Swedish national broadcaster SVT.

Jan Granroth told the Aftonbladet newspaper: “We stood inside a shoe store and heard something … and then people started to scream.

“I looked out of the store and saw a big truck.”

British national Itay Lotem was nearby when the lorry ploughed into pedestrians in the centre of the city.

“I was sitting in a cafe, I just suddenly saw people coming in and talking about a lorry that had driven into people,” he told BBC News. “I walked out and there were many people in that street, it’s a pedestrian street.

“Very quickly police cordoned everything off.”

Pictures posted on social media showed the aftermath of the scene.

The Aftonbladet newspaper reported that the truck had been hijacked from Swedish beermaker Spendrups earlier on Friday.

Drottninggatan is a shopping street close to the city’s main train station. The lorry ploughed into the Ahlens department store which is part of a countrywide chain.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, said: “Our thoughts are with the people of Sweden following the tragic events in Stockholm today. On behalf of the European Commission, I would like to send my sincere condolences to the families of the victims and to salute the courageous work of the first responders who arrived so quickly on the scene.

“An attack on any of our Member States is an attack on us all.”

The crash is close to the scene of a terror attack in 2010 when Taimour Abdulwahab, a Swedish citizen who lived in Luton, blew himself up.

The terrorist, who police concluded acted alone, died on December 11 2010 in the Bryggargatan area. No-one else was killed.

Abdulwahab rigged an Audi car with explosives in the hope that the blast would drive people to Drottninggatan, a busy shopping street, where he was waiting to set off two more devices strapped to his chest and back.

The car bomb never went off and, after setting fire to the Audi, he was unable to detonate the other two explosives as planned.

He made his way down a side street off Drottninggatan and, in an apparent attempt to fix the faulty trigger up his sleeve, set off the bomb on the front of his body, killing only himself.

This article will be updated shortly