Stockholm suspect was refused residency

The 39-year-old Uzbek man is suspected of having driven a truck into a department store in the city on Friday.

His application for residency was rejected in June last year and he was being sought by immigration officials, police said.

But by February, he had “gone underground” and his case was handed over to police, police chief Jonas Hysing told reporters in Stockholm on Sunday.

A second suspect, whose identity was not disclosed, was arrested on Sunday. That person can be detained until Wednesday, at which point prosecutors would have to ask a court for permission to extend their detention.

However, Reuters news agency said the person was arrested on “a lower degree of suspicion” than the first suspect.

The Stockholm attack followed a string of similar assaults in Europe using vehicles.

The deadliest came in France on the Bastille Day national holiday last July when a man rammed a truck into a crowd in the Mediterranean resort of Nice, killing 86 people.

Last month, Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old convert to Islam known to British security services, drove a car at high speed into pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge before launching a knife attack on a policeman guarding the parliament building.

Five people were killed in the attack, while Masood was shot dead by police. In 2010, another section of Drottninggatan was the scene of Sweden’s only other terror attack, when a suicide bomber blew himself up, slightly injuring several others