Police on Stockholm Attack: ‘We Think He Is the Driver of the Truck’

The Swedish police said on Saturday that they had arrested a man believed to have hijacked a beer truck and driven it into a crowd of people in Stockholm the day before, unleashing bloodshed and panic in a terrorist attack on the streets of the capital.

The Swedish prosecutor and police officials did not identify the suspect or confirm his nationality. But Radio Sweden and other news outlets reported that he was a 39-year-old from Uzbekistan.

“We have one person in custody, and we think he is the driver of the truck,” Lars Bystrom, a spokesman for the regional police, said Saturday.

The attack struck at the heart of a nation known for its peacefulness and tolerance, and turned a warm spring afternoon into a scene of terror.

“Sweden has been attacked,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said in a televised news conference on Friday. “This indicates that it is an act of terror.”

The first emergency call came in around 2:50 p.m. local time Friday as the truck mowed down pedestrians along Drottninggatan, a busy pedestrian shopping street. The truck, stolen just blocks away earlier in the day, came to a stop after slamming into the entrance of the Ahlens department store.

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