40 arrested in violent protests over Quran burning in Sweden

More than 40 people have been arrested after violent protests erupted in Sweden against a far right group’s plan to burn the Quran

The outrage was sparked by Danish-Swedish politician, Rasmus Paludan’s organised series of rallies during the month of Ramadan.

Paludan who is also the leader of the anti-immigration and anti-Islam group Hard Line says he has already burnt a copy of the holy book and wants to do it again.

The protests that started in the cities of Linköping and Norrköping turned violent as clashes between the protesters and the police broke out.

Since then, the protests have also spread out to other cities like Orebo, Rinkeby and Malmo.

In Malmo, a school and some vehicles were set on fire by an angry crowd.

Sweden’s national police chief, Anders Thornberg says he has never witnessed such violent clashes happening in Norrkoping, 160 km south-west of Stockholm.

The police says 26 police officers and 14 members of the public were injured in the violence with more than 20 vehicles destroyed.

“Some 200 participants were violent and the police had to respond with arms in legitimate self-defence,” Thornberg says.

Saudi Arabia has also condemned the events conspiring in Sweden calling it a “deliberate abuse of the holy Quran by some extremists”.

Iraq’s foreign ministry has also summoned Sweden’s charge d’affaires, saying the events could have “repurcussions” on “relations between Sweden and Muslims”.

Rijul Baath contributed to this report