Stockholm riots spread as PM slams 'hooliganism'

SWEDEN: Rioting spread across Stockholm immigrant districts Wednesday in a third night of unrest, raising fears that decades of integration efforts have gone dangerously awry.

The riots are believed to have been sparked by the deadly police shooting last week of an elderly man in Husby -- a run down, low-income suburb that is only a short walk away from the Kista Science Tower skyscraper, a symbol of the booming IT sector in one of Europe's wealthiest cities.

"I don't know why they do it," said Mehmet, an employee at a pizza restaurant in the suburb's centre, where youths had broken into the eatery after smashing the windows with rocks.

Their spoils: nine or ten soft drinks. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt on Wednesday blamed the violence on "hooliganism" and appealed for calm after the riots spread from northwestern to southern Stockholm.

"It's important to remember that burning your neighbour's car is not an example of freedom of speech, it's hooliganism," he told news agency TT.

AFP