Sixth Night of Violence in Sweden (Media spin defenders as "far right vigilantes")
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Saturday, 25 May 2013 By: David Crouch Gothenburg
cnbc.com
Fredrik Sandberg | Scanpix | AP
Firemen extinguish a row of burning cars in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby after youths rioted in several different suburbs around Stockholm for a fourth consecutive night, late May 23, 2013.
Rioting spread to several Swedish towns on Friday night as police stepped up arrests during a sixth night of unrest and far-right vigilantes chased non-whites in southern Stockholm.
In Linköping, central southern Sweden, police responded to 120 incidents as cars, caravans and two schools were set alight. At one point a blazing truck was rolled into a building, which caught fire.
"We see the night's events as an offshoot of what has happened in the Stockholm area in recent days," local police told Swedish television.
In Orebro, 120km west of Stockholm, police were stoned after cars and a school were torched. In Uppsalla, north of Stockholm, there was minor violence.
In Stockholm, police made 18 arrests - the largest number since the disturbances broke out last Sunday night in the northern suburb of Husby a week after an elderly immigrant was shot dead by police. The violence appears to have been sparked by young, second-generation immigrants from north Africa and the Middle East angered by racism and social exclusion.
Some 20 cars were torched overnight in the city, according to media reports. On Saturday morning, a further 21 cars were set alight in less than an hour in Åkersberga, just outside Stockholm, Swedish television reported. Police pursued the perpetrators by helicopter.
In the southern suburb of Tumba, at least 50 rightwing extremists chased immigrants, according to numerous media and eye-witness reports on Twitter.
Police told Aftonbladet newspaper that the far-right had planned for several days on social media to "help" deal with the riots. Dagens Nyheter newspaper reported that 10 police vans were needed to prevent neo-Nazis from attacking locals. No arrests were made.
A group claiming to be the driving force behind the vigilantes wrote on Facebook that there was a "large group of Swedes" in southern Stockholm and "smaller groups out on the streets to help maintain law and order".
The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, polling around 10 per cent ahead of elections next year, have called for harsh measures to deal with rioters.
Swedes with immigrant backgrounds promised to mobilise to keep the far right out of their neighbourhoods.
The British Foreign Office and the US State Department issued warnings to citizens visiting Stockholm to stay away from the areas where rioting and protests had taken place.
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