Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - Swedish pro € foreign minister knifestabbed four days before the Euro election.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/eu...ing/index.html

Quote:

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh has been stabbed several times in the chest, stomach and arms while shopping at a Stockholm department store, police said.
http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/WORLD/euro...tory.lindh.jpg

Her injuries were serious but not life-threatening, authorities said, adding they did not think Wednesday's attack was politically motivated.

Lindh, 46, was assaulted around 4 p.m. at the upscale NK (Nordiska Kompaniet) store in downtown Stockholm, officials said.

The foreign minister, an outspoken campaigner for Sweden to join the euro in a referendum Sunday, was undergoing surgery at Karolinska Hospital, her ministry said.

Authorities said Lindh was attacked by an unidentified man who ran from the store, just blocks from parliament. Police said they were searching for a man wearing a camouflage jacket.

Prime Minister Goeran Persson told reporters that "the situation is serious and I am being informed continuously by doctors about her as the situation develops," The Associated Press reported.

Persson, visibly shaken, said he and fellow euro supporters will postpone their campaigning until further notice. He didn't say whether Sunday's national referendum on whether to adopt the single European currency would be postponed.

Persson called Lindh one of the country's best known and respected politicians.

"The attack on her is an attack on our open society and because of this I am feeling great anger and dismay," he said, adding that security around all government buildings had been tightened, AP reported.

Police said Lindh was stabbed in the arms, chest and stomach.

Spokesman Bjoern Pihlblad said police were searching throughout Stockholm for the alleged attacker but didn't release his identity. The knife was recovered at the store, AP reported.

Hanna Sundberg, who was shopping at the store, said she saw a man chase Lindh up an escalator from the basement.

"She laid on the floor and it looked as if a tall man, wearing a peaked cap, was hitting her," she told AP. "But when he ran away, he threw away a knife."

Sundberg said Lindh told her: "God, he has stabbed me in the stomach!" Then, Sundberg said she saw blood.

Although the attack comes just ahead of Sunday's euro referendum, "there is nothing pointing at a political motive right now," AP quoted Pihlblad as saying.

However the attack was probably not random either, Swedish journalist Lisa Grenfors told CNN.

"This man could have taken anyone, (Lindh's) face is quite well known in Sweden right now, her face has been seen a lot on TV and campaign posters all around Stockholm, she's really famous, everyone knows her," said Grenfors of Sweden's TV4.

Like most politicians and officials in Sweden, Lindh traveled without a bodyguard, Grenfors said.

Lindh, one of the country's most admired politicians and No. 3 in the government, has been mentioned as a possible successor to the prime minister.

A member of the Social Democrats, Lindh has headed the Foreign Ministry since 1998. She was a member of the Riksdag, or parliament, from 1982-85. She is married and has two children.

Sweden, a Scandinavian country of 9 million, has a reputation as being relatively safe, although Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated in Stockholm in 1986. His attacker has never been caught.

"For the Swedish people it brings back all the old horrible memories of ... Palme. It might mean Swedish politicians need security guards everywhere they go from now on," Reuters quoted Green Party leader Peter Eriksson as saying.

"I sincerely hope it doesn't lead to that."

Two minutes ago they reported that she was still on the operating table.