Swedish foreign minister stabbed in Stockholm
STOCKHOLM, Sept 10 (AFP)
Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh was stabbed Wednesday in an attack in Stockholm and rushed to hospital for surgery, days ahead of a euro referendum in which she has been a high-profile campaigner.
Lindh, 46, and one of her country's most popular politicians, was injured in the arm and the abdomen by an unknown assailant in a crowded downtown department store.
Her condition was serious but not life-threatening, police spokeswoman Stina Wessling told AFP, adding that her attacker was still at large.
Prime Minister Goeran Persson immediately issued an order to step up security for ministers, and suspended the "yes" campaign in the run-up to Sunday's referendum on Swedish euro entry.
"We are suspending all campaigning until further notice," Persson told reporters just four days ahead of Sunday's vote.
The attack conjured up memories of the assassination of former Prime Minister Olof Palme in as he was leaving a cinema in downtown Stockholm in 1986.
Like Palme, and many top level Swedish politicians, Lindh was not accompanied by bodyguards.
She was not on the campaign trail when she was stabbed but visiting the Nordiska Kompaniet department store privately, police said. She was rushed to Stockholm's Karolinska hospital where she was immediately operated on.
"She has a serious injury in the abdomen and we cannot say anything about her condition until the operation is completed," Lindh's spokesman Dan Svanell told the TT news agency.
Lindh is one of the "yes" camp's most visible campaigners in the run-up to the euro referendum, criss-crossing the country and making regular media appearances.
According to an eyewitness account quoted in Swedish media, the attacker was covered in blood as he ran from the scene, leaving the knife he had used in the assault behind.
Police said they had no indication of any threats against Lindh before the incident.
Lindh is a key member in Persson's Social Democratic government, and regularly tipped as a possible successor.
Swedish politicians condemned the attack.
"I feel great dismay and rage," a visibly-shocked Persson said at a hastily-called news conference, calling the attack "a terrible tragedy".
"I am dismayed that something like this can happen," said Bo Lundgren, leader of the opposition conservative Moderates.
"I very much hope that the injuries turn out to be minor and that she recovers quickly, that is what is most important right now," he said.
Greens co-leader Peter Eriksson said: "What has happened today is not just about Anna Lindh, but an attempt to hurt democracy. This is very serious. It is important that politicians in Sweden are able to walk about freely with having to be under the constant protection of bodyguards."
Central Stockholm was teeming with police, and helicopters were circling the city in search for the attacker, witnesses said.