On Sunday, the British Foreign Ministry changed the advice for travelers to Sweden and writes that it is very likely that terrorist attacks can be carried out.
Terrorist researcher Hans Brun says that Swedish authorities are good at detecting attacks that are planned in groups – but that lone actors are extremely difficult to detect.
On Monday, another Koran burning was carried out, this time on Mynttorget outside the Riksdag in Stockholm.
– That doesn’t make things any better. At the same time, it is interesting and gratifying to see that there were so few people on site, so few demonstrators, says Hans Brun.
Both the government and the Security Police say that the threat picture against Sweden is elevated, even though the Security Police did not raise the official terror threat level.
“Sweden is at the forefront”
Detecting threats from extremist groups is something that the authorities are good at, says Hans Brun.
– Sweden is at the forefront when it comes to understanding and ability to deal with both the extreme right and the jihadist environments, both of which are involved in the heightened threat picture.
Other types of attacks that are not planned in groups are all the more difficult to detect and repel.
– I’m not worried, but the biggest risk we have, and that the Security Police and many other experts have warned about, is what we call lone-acting.
“Extremely difficult to detect”
Loners act out of personal frustration, says Hans Brun.
– They are typically quite young men who have a lot of personal problems, who watch propaganda online and then choose to take out their problems and frustration on the public with very simple means such as knives and vehicles. We have seen that in Sweden and in many other countries, says Brun, and continues:
– Those types of attacks are extremely difficult to detect in time.
The terrorist threat level in Sweden is at level three out of five, which means an increased threat.