Stockholm (AFP) - At least two teenagers were seriously wounded after a sword-wielding attacker entered a high school in central Sweden, authorities said, while media reported the perpetrator had been shot by police.

Regional healthcare director Jonas Cederberg told AFP two “seriously wounded” people had been admitted to hospital. A third person whose injuries had yet to be ascertained was in the process of being brought to hospital.

The two seriously wounded were boys between the ages of 12 and 17, one of whom was in emergency surgery though both were in stable condition, the healthcare authority said on its website.

“An assailant armed with a sword has entered Brinellskolan and wounded several people,” the Fagersta municipality said in a statement, adding that the assailant had been detained by police.

Police said they had received reports of the attack just after 2:00 pm (1200 GMT).

Students, just back from their summer holidays, were still in lockdown at the school and several other nearby schools more than three hours later.

The local authority said a little later that the lockdown had been lifted.

It postponed a news conference initially scheduled for 5:00 pm, saying “a rescue operation” was still ongoing.

The motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

- Former student -

Aftonbladet newspaper reported that the attacker had been shot in the leg by police. It also cited unidentified sources as saying the attacker was an 18-year-old former student of the school.

Swedish broadcaster SVT also reported that the perpetrator had a previous assault conviction and wore a helmet and carried a sword – reminiscent of an October 2015 school attack in the western town of Trollhattan in which a sword-wielding 21-year-old killed three people in a racially-motivated attack.

That time, the attacker wore black clothes, a Darth Vader-like mask and a German World War II helmet.

Images on public broadcaster SVT on Friday showed multiple ambulances and police cars parked outside the school as well as a police helicopter.

The school has around 450 students, in a town of around 12,000 inhabitants.

News agency TT reported that worried parents had gathered outside the school.

“It feels a little bit better when you’re at least a little closer,” mother Agnes told the news agency, explaining that her daughter had called her to say that the students had been locked in.

She had learned her daughter and fellow students were being kept in the school’s library.

In May, the municipality announced that students at Brinellskolan had been sent home following a threat to the school.

- ‘Serious incident’ -

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told AFP in a written statement that “a serious incident has taken place today at a school in Fagersta, just after the summer holidays.”

“There are reports of people being injured. We do not yet know what lies behind the attack, but we do know that the police are working extremely intensively,” Kristersson said.

Kristersson was due to hold a speech in Stockholm in the evening but told media he was cancelling it to focus on the incident.

Magdalena Andersson, leader of the opposition Social Democrats, lamented the “terrible news” from Fagersta, in a post on X.

“My thoughts are with those affected and everyone involved,” she said.

“When violence takes place at a school, I know it impacts everyone in our country. All of Sweden stands with Fagersta in this difficult time.”

Sweden has suffered some high-profile attacks at educational institutions.

In February 2025, a 35-year-old man killed 10 people at an adult education centre in Orebro – Sweden’s worst mass shooting.

Police said it had been motivated by the killer’s wish to end his life because of financial and psychological woes.

In March 2022, an 18-year-old student stabbed two teachers to death at a secondary school in the southern city of Malmo.

And in October 2015, three people were killed in a racially motivated attack at a school in the western town of Trollhattan by a sword-wielding assailant who was killed by police.