Youth sports in Uppsala are affected by acts of violence linked to criminal gangs, report P4 Uppland.
Among other things, training and matches in vulnerable areas have been cancelled.
– There are children and young people who do not dare to train on the pitches they have been assigned, writes the football club on its website.
The recent shootings and explosions have affected the football club Sirius, which is now forced to cancel several training sessions and matches on football fields in vulnerable areas. The reports P4 Uppland.
– We have matches that have been cancelled, says the club director in Sirius, Christer Abrahamsson to P4 Uppland.
Concerns about even more acts of violence have caused some opposing teams to refuse to travel to Uppsala.
– We have opposing teams that do not want to play against us, says Abrahamsson to the radio channel.
– It is a general insecurity that we know very well, continues Abrahamsson.
“Right now we have a development in Sweden and specifically in Uppsala where gang crime affects everyone. Bombings and shootings create insecurity among families, young people and children, regardless of where you live or how you live. The society that we want and work for on a daily basis is being thoroughly overhauled,” writes the football club in one press release on its website.
“Sport is no exception. There are children and young people who do not dare to train on pitches that have been assigned to them, opposing teams cancel matches because they feel insecure about the place where it will be played and parents are unsure where their children are safe,” the football club writes further.
Two people with no connection to the criminal gangs have been killed in Uppsala recently. Most recently, a 25-year-old woman who died in her home after a powerful explosion in a residential area in Fullerö outside Uppsala.
Three men have been arrested for the explosion. Two of the men, 22 and 33 years old, are suspected of murder and gross public destruction. The third person in custody, who is 25 years old, is on probable grounds suspected of aiding and abetting murder and aiding and abetting serious public destruction.