Sunday, September 25, 2005

Sweden: Fire attack on train

The Swedish intifada continues:

Fire attack on Gothenburg train

A railway carriage was filled with smoke in the Hjällbo part of Gothenburg overnight, after a burning object was thrown in. The train driver managed to evacuate passengers from the train, which was on its way to Angered. The train was waiting at Hjällbo when the incident happened. Nobody was injured. It is still unclear what was thrown into the carriage but police say that although there was a significant amount of smoke, there appeared to be no flames. "Someone threw a burning object in, but the fire went out by itself, so there was just a lot of smoke produced," said Jan Lundin, who was investigating the incident for train company Spårvägen. Lundin told TT that the train driver had seen two people near the tracks, who had had their faces covered with hoods, shortly before the object was thrown into the train.

This is not the first such incident:

Sabotage suspected on Stockholm line


The engineer operating the train first noticed that its brakes were malfunctioning. Then smoke started billowing from the eastbound train. It later emerged that the train had collided with manhole covers that Swedish police now believe were willfully placed on the tracks.

Three arrested for train sabotage


After weeks of sabotage SL, Stockholm's transport company, cancelled all evening commuter trains between Västerhaninge and Nynäshamn on Saturday, saying that they could not guarantee passenger safety. By Wednesday three boys had been arrested and the service began again - but not before the notorious train route had dominated front pages both in Stockholm and nationwide. In recent weeks local youths have thrown stones at the trains and threatened and abused staff and other passengers on the service. The final straw came late on Friday night when vandals threw bicycles and rubbish onto the track near Tungelsta. SL and Citypendeln, the company which runs the trains, immediately withdrew the service after 4pm each day, replacing it with a bus service. Mikael Lindskog, the information officer at Citypendeln, told Sunday's DN that in the last two years this stretch of the line has become like a youth club. "The sabotage usually begins soon after school has finished. Last week a drain cover was thrown onto the track at about five o'clock," he said. "There are threats, violence and drunkenness onboard. On a number of occasions conductors have been strangled by passengers who don't want to pay." The decision was supported by staff on the route and conductor Thomas Eriksson told Stockholm City: "The passengers are horrible, swearing and spitting at me when I'm just trying to do my job."

"A terrorist gang has strangled our communications which is a catastrophe for a town with 5,000 commuters," Nynäshamn council member Leif Senquist told Monday's Metro, perhaps optimistically trying to get global support under the banner of the war on terror. "The police and half of Nynäshamn know who is carrying out the sabotage against the trains. Why don't the police pick them up? Shall we let the terrorists take over society?" The police's answer came on Tuesday. As well as pointing out that all of the suspected trouble-makers were supposed to be in the care of the social services, they agreed to invest extra resources in policing the route, with both uniformed and plain-clothes officers.


Is Swedish Democracy Collapsing?


The number of ghettos, a phenomenon that until recently was unheard of in wealthy and egalitarian Scandinavian nations, has been increasing explosively. 14 years ago, there were only 3 such areas in all of Sweden. Today, there are 136. Stockholm politician Annika Billström warns against the dangers of creating ghettos in Sweden. Rock throwing and attacks against buses and trains are increasing problems in some suburbs. In Malmö the bus lines in the area of Rosengård have been cancelled. In Stockholm, the authorities went even further and stopped both the bus traffic in the Tensta suburb and the train to Nynäshamn. Head of the bus company in the city of Uppsala, Claes-Göran Alm, is considering doing the same, as the harassment is costing too much money and is putting their employees at risk. Benny Persson is selling window glass in the areas south of Stockholm. According to him, they sometimes have to jump into the car and leave the spot, as they are met with the harassment that some of the bus companies in the suburbs are experiencing: Stone throwing and threats. The same thing is reported from Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city. The company Hemglass are now attempting to run double crews in their cars to face the problems, but they still have had to completely abandon an area outside Södertälje. If you get stuck in an elevator outside Stockholm, you risk staying there for a long time. The repair personnel now demand security guards present when they arrive, since several of their employees have been physically attacked. The most serious problem, however, is the delay of ambulances and the fire department. According to the Emergency Central, attacks against them have become commonplace in the cities. Every Saturday, at least five to ten times emergency personnel are asking for police escort to be able to do their job.

4 Comments:

At September 25, 2005 4:54 PM, Blogger John Sobieski said...

What is wrong with the Swedes? Are they just going to surrender to Islam without fighting? Sure sounds like it.

 
At September 25, 2005 8:29 PM, Blogger Jude the Obscure said...

Take out the obviously Nordic names and this could be a report from one of the more lawless towns in Iraq.
I do not think the Nordic races have it in them to resist this decline in civility.
When, historically, was the last time Sweden, Norway or Denmark fought for freedom?
Truly, you live in the lands of the lotos eaters.

 
At September 25, 2005 9:25 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Greco: I'm sorry if this makes it difficult for people. I have been adviced by several readers to switch to Typekey or something else. Perhaps I should. But I will take a break from blogging soon, and I want to retain the option of closing down comments when I'm not here. Can this be done with Typekey? Does anybody know?

 
At September 26, 2005 4:11 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My grandmother was from Sweden--the Dalarna area, is it bad there too? Good thing she's not alive to read about this, it would break her heart. It sounds like the Swedes know there is a major problem, but their government is clueless. Just like the US, Britian and the rest of the civilized world. They assumed that Muslims would assimilate into their society, not the other way around. Sweden should follow the Brits lead and begin deporting all the radicals.

 

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