On a typical day, the Risberg Education Center in the Swedish city of Orebro would have been with the students gathered to participate in classes in subjects such as construction, children’s care and Swedish for immigrants.
Wednesday, day after a mass shooting left at least 11 people dead And she sent shock waves all over Sweden, the school was empty when the community coped with violence and some were waiting for the news of the fate of their loved ones.
“These people who were killed here yesterday had dreams to become doctors, nurses, engineers, plumbers or something else,” said Shams Ulqamar Andesh, standing in front of the campus, where he spent four years of learning Swedish.
Mr. Andesh, 42, moved from Afghanistan to Sweden from Afghanistan in 2012. His time in the educational center helped him land as a truck driver for the national postal service and his wife became an assistant to the nurses after visiting the classroom.
“It was my school,” he said.
Mr. Andesh was among a handful of inhabitants and former students who gathered near the school, placed flowers and candles on the sidewalk or stared at a building that is now the center of what Swedish leaders have described as the worst mass shooting in the country’s history.
Police drowned from the premises with blue and white tape to maintain the public far from what is now the subject of the crime investigation, and several officers cost the guardian around the yellow brick building.
Mr. Andesh said that a close family friend was hurried to a nearby hospital after shooting. “We are waiting for us to hear from our doctor what happens next,” he said.
The university city with the 13th century castle, Orebro is 120 mile west of Stockholm and about 180 miles from Oslo, the capital of neighboring Norway. In recent years, Orebro with the population of 160,000 has become home for immigrants from 165 countries, According to the municipality’s website.
The Risberg Education Center, which provides about 2,000 students and offers professional classes and lessons for adults for high school diploma, has become the basic for newcomers, they said there who gathered there.
Kathryn and Lars Banck’s younger son, who has Down syndrome, will complete special education classes at school and were to be scheduled for Tuesday’s English class on Tuesday, but was canceled before the attack. Their older son attended school when it was a high school.
“It’s tragic,” said Mrs. Banck, 72, a native of Boston when she laid a candle out of school. “It’s like a US”
As Sweden faces one of the highest extent to the European Union on the head of the head of arms violence, Orebro also recorded an increase – along with the public debate, which it caused in Sweden.
“We had a lot of incidents,” Mr. Banck said. “But none of this size.”
Rolf Human, who teaches sociology at Orebro University, said in a telephone interview that in his more than 40 years he lived there, he saw the city developing to become richer and more diverse, but also more uneven and segregated.
Mr Human said that the city residents also became more open to harder police and security measures.
The authorities did not determine the motive of the attacker, but Mr. Human said that after police reports he felt some relief, that the attacker was probably a lonely wolf than part of the gang – a sign that deadly violence could be an isolated episode.
“Maybe it could only be a very, very sad memory,” he said.
