Up to 70 newly planted trees have been subjected to sabotage and broken off in Kävlinge in Skåne.
The incident has now been reported, and the police are investigating whether it can be linked to a similar case in Lund.
– We cannot rule out that there is a copycat, says municipal police officer Jessica Mårtensson.
At the end of last week, nearly 70 newly planted and broken trees were found on the outskirts of Kävlinge, something that South Sweden was the first to report on. The trees are in an area where a new residential block is planned, and as a first step trees were planted on the ground.
On Friday morning, the contractor was met by sabotage. The trees were probably cut down on Thursday evening or Friday night.
– It looks like they saw a cut and then broke the trees, says Jessica Mårtenson, municipal police in Kävlinge.
The police: “No natural movement”
According to Jessica Mårtensson, there are still no witnesses who saw what happened and contacted the police.
– There are no houses built yet and there is no lighting, so it is a place that has no natural movement.
So is anyone actively going there to do this?
– Absolutely. It is not a place you visit as it looks at the moment.
On Monday, the contractor submitted a report to the police. It shows that trees worth SEK 450,000 have been destroyed.
It is unclear who will bear the cost. According to South Sweden the contract is still ongoing and has thus not been handed over to the municipality, and therefore no costs should fall on the municipality according to Kävlinge municipality’s project manager Niclas Jensen.
Can’t rule out copycat
The police are investigating whether there are connections to a similar case that occurred in Lund last Christmas, when up to 100 trees were found cut down in Kunskapsparken on Boxing Day. The trees in Lund were valued at just over SEK 3 million.
– The investigation must show that. I am not familiar with the investigation in Lund at all, but since the approach is very similar, we are looking into whether there may be any connection, says Jessica Mårtensson.
– We cannot rule out that it is the same person, or if there is, for example, a copycat.