Seven arrested in second night of Stockholm rioting

STOCKHOLM - Agence France-Presse

Policemen extinguish burning cars after youths rioted in Husby, northern Stockholm on May 20, 2013. Youths in the immigrant-heavy Stockholm suburb of Husby torched cars and threw rocks at police, in riots believed to be linked to the deadly police shooting of a local resident. AFP photo

Seven people were arrested as violence flared up for a second night in a deprived neighbourhood outside Stockholm and showed signs of spreading to other parts of the city, police said on Tuesday.
 
Four of those arrested in the suburb of Husby were detained, two were later released and a third person turned out to be under 15, the age of criminal responsibility in Sweden, according to local police chief Joergen Karlsson.
 
"Around 10 cars were set on fire," he said.
 
Between 50 and 100 people took part in the rioting, and up to 300 people were estimated to have been on the streets, which was "probably more than on Sunday", Karlsson said.
 
"We know that some of those who participated came from other parts of the country," he said.
 
Unrest first broke out in the troubled neighbourhood late Sunday, when local youths torched cars and threw rocks at police into the early hours, in riots believed to be linked to the deadly police shooting last week of an elderly man.
 
Early Tuesday, stones were thrown at firefighters as they tried to extinguish blazes in garbage containers and recycling stations, and several properties had their windows smashed.
 
"Seven police officers suffered minor injuries in connection with the rock throwing," Karlsson said.
 
"There was a smaller riot south of the city, but whether there is any connection to what happened here is hard to say," he said.
 
At a Monday press conference, local activists claimed police had used excessive violence and called them "tramps, monkeys and negroes." The product of Sweden's controversial "million homes programme", Husby's tower blocks were built in the early seventies and are home to around 12,000 people, of which 80 percent come from immigrant backgrounds.
 
Authorities launched an ambitious effort to regenerate the low-income suburbs of northern Stockholm in 2007, but the area's youth unemployment rate remains one of the highest in Sweden.