The new normal

Like I said in a previous post. The Swedish Security Service has raised the terrorist threat level from level 3 to level 4. So this is the new normal. Police armed with automatic weapon patrolling the streets, like here at Sergels torg. The reason behind it. It started with the Danish/Swedish right-wing provocateur Rasmus Paludan burning the Quran. He was followed by another nutter, Salwan Momika who also enjoys burning the Quran. I was in Stockholm last week when he did that. I was on the other side of the water, but I could hear a lot of screaming and shouting as people were protesting about his actions. All of this upset a bunch of religious leaders in the Middle East, and they started talking about a holy war against Sweden. Swedish authorities also claim that Russia have something to do with all of this by planting fake news in social media. If you would like to know more, check out this Wikipedia article.

Police helicopter chase

There we were, enjoying coffee&conversation at my favorite cafe in the Summer weather when a police officer suddenly ran past us. He was followed by a second officer, and a third, (she was kind of hot looking btw). As they ran past us they asked us if we had seen anyone suspicious looking in the area, which we had not. But in the next ten minutes or so everyone walking by the cafe looked very suspicious to us. The officers were followed by a police car, and minutes later by this helicopter that flew over the area for at least fifteen minutes. I had a look at a local Facebook group that informed us about a robbery/theft/something or other at the nearby Haninge mall. A few updates later one of two suspects had been arrested near Eskilsparken so we relaxed and enjoyed another cup of coffee at the cafe.

But my car is in the garage!

There was a lot of smoke. That usually means a fire. Then the fire fighters passed me on the road so I followed them to see if I could get a few photos, (I was on the steel horse). It was a car fire in a multi story car park near the commuter station in Handen. Fire fighters from two stations were busy dealing with the fire when I arrived. I figured I could snap a few quick photos and send them to the local paper, but their photographer were already at the scene! Police were busy closing off the roads. As far as I know no one was injured. One car was destroyed and two there were damaged. I'm guessing the guy on the top photo is a student from the KTH school and that his car was parked in the garage.

Armed Robbery

I heard the police car sirens yesterday afternoon. It was an armed robbery. A gold and watch store near the mall in Handen had just been robbed. I arrived as the police started questioning witnesses. I talked to the guy on the bench. He told me that he saw two robbers running out from the store, and driving off in a car. The window in the door to the store was smashed. He then said the same thing to the police officer, that also asked me if I had seen anything. The eyewitness eye-sight wasn't up to par, so he didn't know the make or model of the getaweay car. Half an hour later as I was on my way home the police had called off a large area around the store and a few photographers had arrived. The guy with the Sony camera works for TV4.

Unlucky Truck Driver of the Day

The truck driver got a flat tire and had to stop in the roundabout, pretty much right on the pedestrian crossing, which meant that I had to turn around when I got there on my bike. A number of idiots used their car horns to get him to move the truck, surprisingly that didn't work! After a while the police arrived to help directing traffic as you couldn't enter Åbyplan in Västerhaninge as long as the truck was parked where it was. Two hours later the truck was still there...

A Historical Find

A while back Rolf Norlin at the Hammarby farm was ploughing one of his fields near Småhamra when he suddenly hit a big rock. A closer look at the rock gave him the surprise of his life. He had just found a never before seen runestone from the Viking Era. He contacted a local archaeologist ( I know him as well), whom I guess was very excited. The runestone is in remarkable good condition. You can easily read the runic inscription although a part of the stone is missing. I don't have an exact translation, but the inscription reads something like: Gunnar and Ulf and Sighjälm had this stone raised after Halvdan their father. There's also a cross and a religious reference, saying something like May God protect his soul. I have never before seen that on a Haninge runestone. One reason for the superb condition of the inscription is probably that the stone has been buried in the field for nearly one thousand years. The experts from the Swedish National Heritage Board will visit the site for the first time later today and I wanted to beat them to it! The two people in the photos are my brother in law, who as it happens visited this area two days ago without seeing the runestone. The other person is Sune Nilsson, whose maternal grandparents lived in a house just meters away from the stone.

Welcome to the Nature Park

I guess I should start a new Please Remove This Vehicle Campaign as the last one I did worked out fine, although it took quite some time. A little over a week ago three cars burned in Handen. Two of them at a parking lot at Tuvvägen. And on the same night this car (along with a moped), was nicked, dumped and burned at a popular path in the nature park Slätmossen, a park I often visit. I contacted the municipality and got a quick responce from a journalist working there. He informed the new landscape architect about this (the previous architect has retired, but when I visited the park yesterday, the car wreck was still there in the middle of the path, but the moped was gone!

Toast!

Scary accident of the day. Here is how it happened. The truck was parked just a few meters from the Shell station in Handen when a fire broke out in the cab where the driver was sitting. He got out OK and someone called the rescue service. The fire station is only a kilometre away so they were there in no time. When they arrived the whole truck was burning. The cargo was bread, hence my title. I talked to the driver who was a bit shocked. One of his colleagues had arrived in another truck and they were looking at the damage when I arrived. I talked to a security guard at the nearby mall and he had been a bit worried with a burning truck so close to a fillig station. As I understand it no one was injured in this accident.

Scary accident at the Mall

I have heard before about accidents were people have been killed by falling flagpoles. It has been very windy in Haninge this week, and earlier today this flagpole broke and fell to the ground near one of the entrances to the Haninge mall. The ambulance arrived just a few minutes before I took this photo. A group of people had gathered, and this police officer was trying to remove the heavy flagpole. Someone must have been badly hurt. Not sure who is responsible for looking after the flag poles, has to be the municipality or the mall. I stopped at the cafe after taking this photon where two of my friends were busy working on their laptops, so we searched online for news about this incident, but didn't find anything.

Winter Collision

A common sight this winter. A car collision. Luckily no one was injured here. The grey van came down the very icy Hammarbergsvägen in Tungelsta and the driver told me that he couldn't stop. The woman in the blue Audi was driving uphill along Allévägen, apparently talking on her cell phone. Result, a busy day for the tow truck driver, because as you can see both car had to be towed away. It took everyone involved a while to work everything out with insurance papers and phone calls. The police arrived after thirty minutes and they left when the tow truck arrived.

A Horrible Christmas

Last night I suddenly heard a helicopter flying low over Tungelsta. A fire had started in a house at Kulgränd. Someone apparently left a candle burning while taking a dog for a walk. The horrible result, six burned-out row houses. Miraculously no one was injured in the blast. Firefighters from three different stations worked for a couple of hours to contain the fire. This morning I walked over to have a look at the scene. The fire fighters were still busy working and police were about to start their investigation. I talked to a few people and they told me about a terrible night. People were evacuated to the nearby soccer pitch and today some of them will have to find another place to live for a few months. I really feel for these families, what a horrible start to Christmas they got.

Explosion in Tungelsta

Suddenly we heard some kind of explosion. A few minutes later we could hear the police sirens closing in. I decided to see what was going on. It turned out to be a scary accident at an industrial estate here in Tungelsta. As I arrived to the building at Allévägen there was a lot of smoke and flames. Something like fourteen fire trucks arrived along with a lot of police and ambulances. An ambulance helicopter circled the area, but couldn't land, probably because the building housed several acetylene tanks that might explode. I had a very brief conversation with the owner of the company as he was talking to a police officer(third photo), and he told me that three people had been injured. One man who had been badly injured was taken away with the ambulance helicopter that managed to land at the soccer pitch. Police then decided to evacuate 100 homes, but later I heard that only five houses needed to be evacuated. The industrial hotel is most likely totally destroyed. Around 15 companies work from that building. Last year I met and photographed Frida Forshed who at the time was based there.

This Just In

One month ago I showed you a photo of a burning car. Since then there has been a few similar incidents. Just a couple of days after that first fire, another car was stolen, dumped and torched on the same place. That is, just outside my bedroom window (first photo). And just like the first time, the fire fighters took their time, but eventually they arrived. The burning wreck was then left outside the school gymnasium for one week! A big hit both with school kids and pre-school kids. As that car finally was towed away, I found another stolen, dumped and torched car at Stenliden (second photo). It was a new SAAB. And next to that one was a fourth car. By now I had been in contact with the police and a few other people trying to find out if this was being investigated. Then followed two incidents in Jordbro. A drug addict went berserk and vandalised some 25 cars one Saturday night. He was apprehended and claims to have no memory of that evening. Then followed a car burning frenzy. Seven cars parked at three different locations burned on the same night! And just last weekend three cars burned at Ribby in Västerhaninge (third photo). I talked to two women at the scene who speculated that this last incident could have been a personal vendetta as two of the cars had the same owner. Oh, and speaking of incidents, there was an arson attack in Jordbro last week. One of my flickr contacts got a few photos including one where the fire fighters saved the life of a cat found in the empty apartment. I wonder what will happen next?

Woke Up This Morning...

This was unexpected. And a bit unnerving. I was sound asleep yesterday night. Probably dreaming about something weird, when I was awaken by a unfamiliar sound. It was still dark outside but there was a strange light from the window. Looking out I got a bit of a shock. Only meters from the house a car had just burst into flames! After calling the fire services I quickly dressed and grabbed the camera. It was raining, but the flames were still a few meters high, and as I walked closer I could hear a few small explosions so I stopped where I was and took a few photos. After twenty minutes the fire fighters arrived and put out the fire. A couple of hours later in the morning I walked down to the torched car for another look. My neighbour Danuta came over. She had heard some people outside her bedroom in the early hours and that was probably the car thieves running away. This kind of thing isn't that uncommon these days. I'm guessing it was a few local kids that stole the car and took it for a joyride.

News of the Day

No need to buy a newspaper in Sweden for the next few weeks. The reason for that is that the future Queen is getting married to her long-time boyfriend. The news broke earlier today and people really seem to care about it. If you want to know more about Crown Princess Victoria's wedding next summer check out the Royal Family's website. If it hasn't crashed already!

Some sad news

Reading in the local paper I noticed an article about a fire in Tungelsta. An old croft known as Kilen (to the right in my photo from 2006), had burned down a couple of days ago. The owner, Mikael Öberg and his family lives in the house to the left in the photo. They have been renovating the old croft since 2003. And now it's all gone. The family woke up when the rescue service knocked on their door in the middle of the night. The firefighters got a call from someone driving past the place. I don't know how old KIlen was, but I know that one of Sweden's most famous politicians, Gunnar Sträng, spent some time here as a kid, as his grandparents lived in the croft. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Fire in Tungelsta

There was a fire at ålsta in tungelsta, at tungans 3-gård today. One of the few remaining greenhouse business here. Luckily it looks like the greenhouses was saved. More info later. The police asked us to move away so i went back home. The fire started in the pellet heater.

Armed Robbery

There was an armed robbery at Jordbro today. Two men held up a security guard vehicle from Loomis at Moränvägen at the Jordbro Galleria. The robbers disappeared on mopeds. I was in the area and decided to stay around. Took some photos of police cars, onlookers and a police helicopter that circled the area for half an hour before landing in a park. More police arrived and after 20 minutes the helicopter did another search of the area.

Apartment Fire

There was a fire in an apartment at Ribby in Västerhaninge today. I was in the area when the fire and rescue services arrived. They had to knock down the door to the apartment on the third floor. A little later a fire fighter opened the balcony door and you could see a lot of smoke come out. I talked to some of the concerned neighbours. It looks like the owners were staying in a camper at a local beach. They have a daughter but I don't think anyone was home. Will try to find out more later.

Llamas on the run!

I was at the optician in Västerhaninge yesterday afternoon. Suddenly a woman opens the door, she's on the phone shouting, "there's two Llamas on the run". "They just passed me at the shopping arcade!" I know that there's a circus in town, so the Llamas must come from Cirkus Maximum! I run out, followed by the optician. A crowd is gathering. I slowly walk up to the animals and takes a few shots. Then another guy for whatever reason, moves in closer and that scares the animals and they run off. This happens at the commuter station and there's lots of people and buses to scare the poor animals. Update: On the news they suspected sabotage, that someone had unlocked a gate so that the animals could get out. After 45 minutes in freedom staff from the circus manages to catch all the runaways, and as far as I know no one was hurt. I mailed the circus, they have a blog and wanted to use one of my photos which I obviously agreed to.Bigger photo.