Three people were killed in an attack that shocked Sweden as a masked, sword-wielding assailant entered the school, stabbing students and teachers who appeared to be of foreign origin. Several people were also injured. The attacker, 21-year-old Anton Lundin Pettersson, was then shot dead by police.
“It was an attack on all of Sweden,” Education Minister Gustav Fridolin said as the procession ended outside the school.
In the week running up to the one-year anniversary, students of the school had made thousands of postcards in memory of the teacher, pupil and teacher aide who were killed in the assault.
A police investigation has showed that Lundin had planned the attack, which lasted around 10 minutes, after being inspired by racist websites.
A teenage student told The Local at the time that many people at the school at first thought it was some kind of a prank.
“I was in a classroom with my class when one of my classmates’ sisters called her to warn her that there was a murderer at the school. So we locked the door to the classroom, but our teacher was still outside in the corridor.”
“We wanted to warn him, so a few of us went outside and then I saw the murderer, he was wearing a mask and had a sword. Our teacher got stabbed.”
“The murderer started chasing me, I ran into another classroom. If I had not run, I would have been murdered. I’m feeling really scared. Everyone’s scared here.”
Trollhättan is an industrial town with around 50,000 residents.