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POLICE

Swedish police to ban ALL bags at major concerts and sporting events

Sweden will ban bags at all major events due to the heightened risk of terror attacks.

Published: 1 November 2023 14:24 CET
Swedish police to ban ALL bags at major concerts and sporting events
Sweden's Kosovare Asllani and Italy's Manuela Giugliano at a football match in Malmö this week. Photo: Andreas Hillergren/TT

The police said that the ban would take effect “gradually” and apply to all future decisions on permits for events.

It will be decided on a case-by-case basis whether an event counts as “major”.

Some of the events covered by the ban will be concerts, festivals and sporting events such as national team competitions, and matches played in the Swedish football league and ice hockey league.

People who have a medical need to bring a bag will be exempt from the ban.

Police said that they had decided on a total ban on bags due to the “current situation in society and the fact that the terror threat level is at four”, but did otherwise not elaborate on specific details.

Sweden in August raised its national terror threat level from three to four on a five-point scale.

The Swedish security service said at the time that Sweden had become a “prioritised target” for violent extremists, after a series of Quran burnings in the country and a disinformation campaign alleging the social services kidnap Muslim children.

Two Swedish football fans were shot dead in an apparent terror attack in Brussels last month, on the same day Sweden’s national team were set to play Belgium.

Member comments

  1. Since we know where the perpetrators and their supporters are coming from, why not cancel all flights / travel to those countries ?
    Deport the “troublemakers” and immediate family.
    If you preach hate, you are no longer welcome in Sweden.

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FOOD AND DRINK

Why were guests at Sven-Göran Eriksson’s funeral served porridge and ‘molusk’?

Guests at the funeral of Swedish football legend Sven-Göran Eriksson were to be treated to a menu of local Värmland cuisine on Friday: motti and molusk.

Published: 13 September 2024 10:59 CEST
Why were guests at Sven-Göran Eriksson's funeral served porridge and 'molusk'?

Sven-Göran Eriksson, one of Sweden’s most famous football icons, passed away at the end of August, just a few months after he went public with the news that he had terminal pancreatic cancer in January this year.

His funeral was scheduled for 10am on Friday in his hometown, Torsby, in Värmland. Many aspects of the funeral were planned by Eriksson himself, who was famously proud of his roots in Värmland and much-loved in Torsby for his down-to-earth, friendly nature.

Eriksson requested that the funeral be open to the public, so the 600-seater church was expected to be packed with a mix of small-town locals alongside his star-studded guestlist, including former England captain David Beckham and fellow England manager Roy Hodgson.

As the number of people interested in attending far exceeded space in the church, the local town set up a big screen outside where onlookers wishing to pay their respects would be able follow the funeral live.

“I think there will be as many people outside as inside the church,” Christopher Janson from Torsby’s funeral parlor told local newspaper NWT. “He was so folklig [down to earth], remembered people and checked up on his old school classmates. He was definitely a popular figure in town.”

After the ceremony, there was set to be a procession accompanied by Torsby’s local brass band – again, Eriksson’s own request, inspired by the funeral of Italian team Sampdoria’s former president, which Eriksson attended in 1993.

The procession was due to end at Kollsbergs hembygdsgård, where guests were to be treated to local specialties motti and molusk.

But what exactly does that entail?

Luckily for the guests, the molusk has no relation to slimy invertebrates, rather it’s a cake made to the same recipe as a chocolate ball (chokladboll in Swedish) – oats, cocoa powder, butter and sugar – rolled into a log and dipped in chocolate.

Molusk cakes from Wienerkonditoriet in Torsby. Photo: Wienerkonditoriet

“It was Svennis’ request to have molusks and I think it’s because the molusk is a well-known cake from Torsby which has been baked here since the 1950s,” Lisa Nordqvist, from Wienerkonditoriet in Torsby, who supplied the cakes for the funeral reception, told The Local.

“We make the original and everyone who comes from Torsby has heard of it. A lot of people who have visited or have connections to Torsby speak highly of it,” she continued.

Motti, on the other hand, has its roots in Finland, and was brought by Finns to Värmland in the 1600s. It’s a type of porridge made from a special kind of flour called skrädmjöl, which is made from toasted oats.

It’s considered to be Värmland’s national dish, and is made by dumping the flour on top of some sort of liquid, either water or stock, and letting it steam for around ten minutes.

This results in a lumpy, relatively dry porridge which was traditionally eaten with the hands – another word for it is nävgröt, “fist porridge”.

It’s usually served with lingonberry jam and fried fläsk, which is similar to bacon, but slightly thicker, where the lumps of porridge are dipped into the jam and bacon fat.

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