During the recent wave of violence in Sweden, homemade bombs have been used on several occasions. Last week, two people were arrested at Stockholm’s central station who, according to information to Aftonbladet, had a thermos bomb in a bag. Both are arrested on probable cause, suspected of breaching the Act on Flammable and Explosive Goods, serious crime and preparation for serious destruction of public property. Certain risk How common home-made bombs are in public places cannot be said, according to Marie Borgh, section manager at National bomb protection. If an explosion is to be carried out, the object must be transported from A to B. Most transports are carried out by someone who has been assigned to do it. It can be anything from driving your own moped, car or public transport, says Borgh. Henric Östmark, head of unit at FOI and expert on explosives, says that there are several cases where incendiary was present in the explosive during transport. This makes the bomb even more sensitive. There is a certain risk of it exploding if you drop it. Easy to manufacture According to Henric Östmark, the bombs are easy to manufacture if you have access to the starting materials. It is also relatively easy to obtain civilian explosives, such as dynamite. It is still stolen from construction sites. There have also been bomb factories in Sweden where you have been able to buy bombs outright. The explosives normally used recently are civilian, stolen explosives or explosive bangers that can be bought from abroad via the internet. How much damage the bomb can cause depends on how big it is. The ones we have seen in Sweden have been everything from a small thermos with a couple of hectoliters of some explosive, to large bombs where we are talking about kilos. We have seen that an entire row of townhouses has been destroyed and the facades of buildings destroyed, says Östmark.
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