Attackers paint swastikas inside Stockholm mosque in Sweden

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Unidentified attackers burst into a mosque in Stockholm, Sweden, just after morning prayers on Saturday.

They spray-painted swastikas and hate speech on the walls and throwing firecrackers, police said.

All of the worshippers had left the mosque in Bredang in southern Stockholm at the time of the attack except one, and he was shaken but unharmed, mosque officials told Swedish news agency TT.

The attackers sprayed the words "kill Muslims" on the walls next to swastikas.

Police said they were investigating the incident as vandalism and a hate crime. No arrests had been made several hours after the attack.

"This is not something one would expect... It's hard to understand what is going on in society, both internationally and in our own country. I don't recognize Sweden anymore," Mustafa Tumturk, a representative of Stockholm's Muslim community and one of the founders of the mosque in 1985, told TT.

Sweden has seen a spate of attacks against mosques and refugee centres in recent years, as the country has taken in record numbers of refugees -- 245,000 in 2014 and 2015.



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