Panic in Sweden as child brings grenade to class

A young child sparked panic at his Swedish preschool when he brought in a grenade he found on a military firing range to show his friends, local officials said yesterday. The child arrived with the grenade in his hand at the school in the southern town of Kristianstad on Tuesday. A teacher who saw the grenade contacted police.

Police officers were able to determine it was a "dangerous" grenade the boy had picked up this summer at the Rinkaby firing range, located outside Kristianstad. They blocked off the area and the national bomb squad neutralized the ammunition at the scene several hours later. "We don't know how bad the damages would have been" if it had exploded, a police spokesman told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Sweden has one of the highest levels of lethal gun violence in Europe, World Health Organization (WHO) data showed in 2018. According to reports based in 2018, crime in Sweden is moderate compared to neighboring countries and murder rates are steady but 43 people were killed in shootings last year, a record high and up from eight in 2006.