Victim of sword attack at a Swedish school was a 17-year-old girl

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The victim of a deadly sword attack at a school in central Sweden was a 17-year-old girl, police said Saturday.

An 18-year-old man armed with a sword carried out the attack at the Brinell School in Fagersta, northwest of Stockholm, while classes were in session on Friday. One person was killed and three others were wounded, two of them severely.

Police said the suspect had been arrested and that the case was being investigated as murder and attempted murder. The police said they have no reason to believe there were more perpetrators.

Vastmanland County, where the town is located, said that the two seriously injured boys were ages 12 and 17. A third person, also under 18, was slightly injured and has been discharged from a hospital, Swedish news agency TT reported.

On Saturday morning, around 70 people gathered at the memorial site that the municipality prepared, carrying flowers and lighting candles, TT reported.

There was no official information on the attacker’s possible motive.

Sweden’s national police said that investigators have already carried out two house searches in connection with the suspect. Many witnesses were expected to be interviewed as part of the investigation.

The region went into a state of emergency on Friday, but it had ended by Saturday.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, in an earlier X post, lamented the violence in Fagersta “right after the summer break.”

“We do not yet know what lies behind the act, but we know that the police are working very intensively,” he said. “Our thoughts are with all those affected.”

Sweden has seen a series of violent school attacks over the years.

Last year, 11 people, including the gunman, died after an attack at an education center in Örebro in central Sweden, leading the government to propose tougher gun laws. It's considered to be the worst mass shooting in the country's history.

In 2022, an 18-year-old man attacked two female teachers with a knife and an ax in a school in Malmo, killing them.

In 2015, a 21-year-old local man rampaged through a school in the southern industrial city of Trollhattan, stabbing three people to death before being fatally shot by police. Authorities called it a racist hate crime, saying he methodically selected dark-skinned victims at Trollhattan’s Kronan school, where most students are foreign-born.

Police and emergency personnel outside Brinellskolan during a major emergency response after a man with a sword reportedly injured several people at the school in Fagersta, Sweden, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. (Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency via AP)

Police and emergency personnel outside Brinellskolan during a major emergency response after a man with a sword reportedly injured several people at the school in Fagersta, Sweden, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. (Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency via AP)

People leave flowers and candles at a makeshift memorial outside a school in Fagersta, Sweden, Saturday Aug. 22, 2026, the day after an 18-year-old with a sword attacked the school killing one person and seriously injuring two others. (Magnus Lejhall/TT via AP)

People leave flowers and candles at a makeshift memorial outside a school in Fagersta, Sweden, Saturday Aug. 22, 2026, the day after an 18-year-old with a sword attacked the school killing one person and seriously injuring two others. (Magnus Lejhall/TT via AP)

BUNIA, Congo (AP) — Congo has received more than 16,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine as the country grapples with the fastest Ebola outbreak in history, the country's health minister said.

The 16,250 doses arrived at the N’djili International Airport in the capital, Kinshasa, late Friday, as part of 70,000 doses expected from the World Health Organization and partners that were announced on Thursday. More doses are expected early next week.

The current Ebola outbreak in Congo is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which currently has no approved treatment or vaccine. It can spread easily and go undetected because some of its symptoms are similar to other illnesses, such as malaria. The Ervebo vaccine is licensed to treat Ebola and has been effective in past outbreaks. The WHO said it may provide some protection against the Bundibugyo virus.

The latest outbreak, which has recorded 2,557 deaths out of the 5,375 confirmed cases across six affected provinces, is spreading at an unprecedented rate and is on track to surpass the deadliest outbreak on record, which killed over 11,000 people across West Africa between 2014 and 2016. Data from the Africa Centre for Disease Control shows that transmission has not yet peaked and could reach three times its known rate.

Efforts to contain the outbreak have been hampered by armed conflict between the government and rebel groups, which control key cities in the hot spot; attacks on medical personnel and facilities; an itinerant labor population and people displaced by the armed conflict; and a lack of critical infrastructure.

Residents and frontline workers embark on Ebola outbreak awareness campaign in Beni, North Kivu province, eastern Congo, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Sebastien Kitsa Musayi)