11 dead in worst mass shooting in Sweden’s history, authorities say
Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via Getty Images
(LONDON and BELGRADE) — A mass shooting at an adult educational facility in Sweden on Tuesday was the deadliest such incident in the country’s history, with 11 people killed, including the alleged shooter, law enforcement said on Wednesday.
“It is a very painful day for all of Sweden,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a statement posted on social media. “Being confined to a classroom with fear for your own life is a nightmare that no one should have to experience.”
Police early on Wednesday said there was “currently no information that indicates that the perpetrator acted based on ideological motives.”
The shooting at the Risbergska Skolan complex in Orebro, Sweden, began midday, with police issuing an alert that the school was under threat of “deadly violence.”
The school was placed on lockdown, students were evacuated and family members were notified, police in the Bergslagen region said.
Officials initially said that a handful of people had been shot, without saying whether any had been killed. In an update close to midnight, police said 10 people and the alleged shooter were dead. The ages and identities of the dead and injured have not been released.
As of 7 a.m. on Wednesday, six people were still being treated in a local hospital — the same number of people as the day prior, according to Dr. Hans Olsson, who works in Orebro. No additional patients have been admitted, he said.
“The number of injured is still unclear,” police said in an update posted in Swedish. “We currently have no information on the condition of those who have been injured.”
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman, Joe Simonetti, Helena Skinner and Megan Forrester contributed to this report.
(LONDON and ROME) — Pope Francis “remained stationary” on Wednesday, “without showing any episodes of respiratory failure,” according to the Vatican.
The pope received “high-flow oxygen therapy during the day, and noninvasive mechanical ventilation will be resumed during the night,” the Vatican said in its evening update.
Pope Francis spent the day in an armchair, participated in the “ritual blessing of the Holy Ashes that were imposed on him by the celebrant” and received the Eucharist, the Vatican said.
“During the morning he also called Father Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of the Holy Family in Gaza. In the afternoon he alternated rest with work,” the Vatican said.
The pope “rested well during the night” and woke shortly after 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, his 20th day in hospital, as his condition remains stable and his prognosis remains reserved, according to the Vatican.
The pontiff had needed medical intervention amid two episodes of “acute respiratory failure” on Monday, Vatican sources told ABC News.
The pope did not have any episodes of respiratory failure or bronchospasm on Tuesday, according to the Vatican.
Pope Francis has remained “alert, cooperating with therapy and oriented,” the Vatican’s press office, the Holy See, said. He underwent “high-flow oxygen therapy and respiratory physiotherapy” on Tuesday, the Vatican said.
He resumed noninvasive mechanical ventilation overnight into Wednesday morning “as planned,” according to the Vatican.
The pope, 88, was taken off noninvasive mechanical ventilation and resumed receiving supplemental oxygen through a nasal tube, Vatican sources said Tuesday. He was no longer wearing a mechanical ventilation mask, a device that pumped oxygen into his lungs, the sources said.
Wednesday marks Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, which is a 40-day season of prayer, fasting and giving. It concludes with Holy Week, which leads to Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian calendar.
The Vatican said last week that Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, major penitentiary and delegate of the pope, will replace Pope Francis at Wednesday’s liturgical celebration for Ash Wednesday in Rome.
The Cardinal will read the Homily prepared by the Pope and the text will be released later today, the Vatican said.
Francis, who has led the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia. The pontiff had a bronchospasm attack on Friday, church officials said.
Rescuers of the State Emergency Service work to put out a fire in a private house after a drone strike in Kharkiv, on December 25, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo by SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Ukrainians faced fresh Russian drone and missile strikes on energy infrastructure nationwide on Tuesday night into Christmas Day morning, with the energy minister in Kyiv warning of immediate power cuts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram, “Every Russian massive strike takes time to prepare. It is never a spontaneous decision. It is a conscious choice not only of targets, but also of time and date.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelenskyy said, “deliberately chose Christmas for an attack. What could be more inhuman? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic ones, and more than a hundred strike drones. The targets are our energy sector. They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine.”
“According to preliminary data, our defenders managed to shoot down more than 50 missiles and a significant part of the drones,” Zelenskyy said. “Unfortunately, there are hits. As of now, there are outages in several regions. Energy workers are working to restore the power supply as soon as possible.”
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 78 missiles of various types into the country, of which 59 were shot down. Russia also launched 106 strike drones, of which 54 were shot down and 52 were lost in flight, the air force added.
“The enemy attacks energy again massively,” Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote in a statement posted to Facebook early Wednesday. Grid operators, he added, were implementing “necessary consumption restriction measures to minimize negative consequences for the energy system.”
When the security situation allows, “the power companies will specify the damage caused,” Galushchenko added. “Stay tuned for official announcements. While the danger lasts — stay in shelters!”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a statement posted to X, “This Christmas terror is Putin’s response to those who spoke about illusionary ‘Christmas ceasefire’.”
“One Russian missile passed Moldovan and Romanian airspace, reminding that Russia threatens not only Ukraine,” Sybiha added.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement posted to Telegram that it “carried out a massive strike with long-range precision weapons and strike drones on critical energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine that ensure the operation of the military-industrial complex.”
“The strike’s goal was achieved,” the ministry said. “All facilities were hit.”
The ministry said its forces also shot down 59 Ukrainian drones overnight.
This year is the second in which Ukraine will officially celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25. Previously, many Ukrainians celebrated Christmas in January per the Orthodox calendar, as Russian Orthodox adherents still do.
“For the second time, we celebrate Christmas on the same date as one big family, one country,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Tuesday. “For the second time in modern history, Christmas unites all Ukrainians.”
“Today, we stand side by side, and we will not be lost,” Zelenskyy added. “In person, from afar, or in our hearts — Ukrainians are together today. And as long as we do this, evil has no chance.”
(BEIT LAHIA, Gaza) – Health officials in Gaza say there is only one hospital remaining that is providing humanitarian aid services in the northern part of the strip amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
In early October, Israel Defense Forces reportedly ordered evacuations of several regions in the north of Gaza, doctors at the hospitals told ABC News, including Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahia, as they work to surround Hamas fighters who are allegedly in the area.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, said in a recorded message shared over the weekend on an X account by the director general of the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health that his hospital is “currently the only hospital still providing humanitarian services in northern Gaza.”
Between 50,000 and 75,000 residents are estimated to remain in northern Gaza, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
In additional comments Sunday, sent via a WhatsApp group the Gaza Ministry of Heath uses to share updates with the media, Safiya said there are currently 400 civilians inside Kamal Adwan Hospital, including babies in the neonatal unit who are in incubators and in need of oxygen. He further said that despite orders from the IDF to evacuate Kamal Adwan Hospital, there is no way to safely evacuate patients from the hospital.
“We have repeatedly requested assistance and have openly invited [Israeli forces] to see for themselves the internal workings of our hospitals so that we may continue to serve our population without fear of attack and death. These calls were rejected,” Safiya said in Sunday’s comments. “We also call on the world to witness, that if Kamal Adwan Hospital is decommissioned, there will be no way of preserving conditions of life to the remaining 75,000+ civilians in north Gaza.”
ABC News has not been able to confirm if and when Israeli forces were invited to enter Kamal Adwan Hospital, as Safiya claims, nor when the invitation was allegedly rejected.
Safiya also said that Kamal Adwan Hospital has been the target of IDF attacks as recently as Sunday.
“Direct attacks on the hospitals began with no warnings and no civilian protection permitted by the occupation, in the way of normal procedures expected in a combat zone,” he said in the Sunday message to reporters. “[International Committee of the Red Cross] and other U.N. bodies were consistently denied access to intervene. As a result, significant harm and loss to civilian life and means of preserving life resulted in these attacks on hospitals.”
“Regarding Kamal Adwan Hospital, IDF forces are operating in its vicinity but not within its premises,” the IDF said Monday in response to an ABC News request for comment, adding that the IDF “is unaware of any evacuation order of the hospital.” The IDF response did not address whether they attacked the hospital.
Israel has claimed that Hamas uses hospitals, and networks of tunnels beneath them, as bases to conduct and promote terrorist activity, and U.S. officials have backed this claim. Hamas, however, has repeatedly denied it.
Israeli forces have also insisted that they have tried to limit civilian casualties as much as possible over the course of the war.
The latest update from the Gaza Ministry of Health comes as UNICEF says children in the most northern part of Gaza have been largely unable to receive humanitarian assistance for more than 10 weeks due to the ongoing siege.
More than 96% of women and children in Gaza are currently surviving on a diet of rationed flour, lentils, pasta and canned food, which does not meet their nutritional needs, according to UNICEF.
“Gaza must be one of the most heartbreaking places on earth for humanitarians. Every small effort to save a child’s life is undone by fierce devastation,” UNICEF Communication Specialist Rosalia Bollen said during a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on Friday.
“For over 14 months, children have been at the sharp edge of this nightmare, with more than 14,500 children reportedly killed, thousands more injured,” she continued. “As we approach the end of the year, a time when the world strives to celebrate family, peace and togetherness, in Gaza the reality for over a million children is fear, utter deprivation and unimaginable suffering.”
Since Hamas launched its surprise terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, more than 1,700 Israelis have been killed and more than 8,700 have been injured, according to Israeli officials. In Gaza, more than 45,300 people have been killed, and more than 107,700 people have been injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
