Police Lose Control As Quran Burning Sparks Clashes in Sweden (+Video)
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A riot broke out on Friday in the southern Swedish town of Malmo, where at least 300 people had gathered to protest against anti-Islam activities, police said.
Some 300 people gathered along a main thoroughfare in Malmo on Friday around 7:30pm local time to protest after members of a far-right political party staged a Quran burning earlier in the day, according to local press reports.
As the crowd grew, fires were ignited in the street and several cars torched, prompting a heavy police response that struggled to bring the situation under control, RT reported.
“We have ongoing and violent riots right now that we have no control over,” police spokesman Rickard Lundqvist told a local news outlet amid the disorder.
Chants of “Allahu akbar” (“God is great” in Arabic) could be heard in footage that circulated online, which also showed tires and other debris burned in the street and a billowing column of black smoke rising into the night sky. A major fire was also reported in an underground parking garage in Rosengard, about 1km away from the main area of unrest.
The Quran burning which set off the riots was carried out by members of Stram Kurs (“Hard Line”), a far-right Danish political party founded by lawyer and anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan in 2017. The activists filmed the burning of the holy book, which was done in a public park.
Elsewhere in Malmo, three Stram Kurs members were reportedly arrested for incitement against an ethnic group after torching another Quran in public.
Paludan was barred entry into Sweden earlier on Friday, turned away at a border checkpoint near Malmo and slapped with a two-year ban from the country over concerns that he could “disturb public order,” a police spokesperson told Danish broadcaster DR. The right-wing activist had previously requested a permit to hold a demonstration in Malmo, where he was set to attend a Quran burning with street artist Dan Park, which was promptly rejected by Swedish authorities.