Policemen are pictured next to a bomb-disposal robot in the Old Town of Stockholm, Sweden. (AFP/Bertil Ericson/TT)
STOCKHOLM: A man claiming to have a bomb in the office of a human rights group in Stockholm gave himself up on Thursday after negotiating with the police on the phone, law enforcement said.
“A man has left the building and he has been arrested,” police spokesman Sven-Erik Olsson told AFP.
“He has followed the instructions he got from the police during the arrest.”
The suspect did not have a bomb on him, according to the police, who said they still had to search the building.
Police officers had cordoned off two large areas of central Stockholm after the man entered the offices of Civil Rights Defenders with a suspect device.
It was unclear why the suspect had targeted that specific human rights organisation, which was not immediately available for comment.
“The man claims to have an explosive object,” police spokesman Olsson earlier told Aftonbladet TV while local media reported that the man was believed to be wearing a bomb belt.
“The man has expressed his dissatisfaction with parties in the parliament,” the police added in a statement, explaining that two main streets in the city centre had been closed off.
The human rights group Civil Rights Defenders is located just four doors away from the offices of the ruling Moderate Party in Stockholm’s old town.
Bomb disposal technicians were at the location and police had cordoned off the street from early afternoon as well as another area north of the old town where the Social Democratic Party has its headquarters.
The two normally bustling streets were completely empty apart from emergency services and police who said that they had telephone contact with the man and had engaged in negotiations.
Three dark sedan cars with masked anti-terror forces arrived near the building and a bomb disposal robot was sent down the street, said an AFP reporter at the scene in the late afternoon.
Police extended the security cordon and witnesses reported seeing heavily armed police with crowbars and other tools used for forcing entry.– AFP