Stockholm truck attack driver had ISIS sympathies

The driver of a hijacked truck who killed four people in Stockholm, Sweden had extremist sympathies.

“We know that he (the truck attack suspect) showed sympathies for extremist organizations, among them ISIS. We have no further comment on that,” said Sweden’s National Strategic Commander Jonas Hysing.

The 39-year-old Uzbek man hijacked a beer truck and drove through a crowd of downtown shoppers, then crashing into a department store. The truck caught fire. The driver was arrested several hours later.

The driver killed two Swedish citizens, one British citizen and one Belgian citizen. Fifteen people were injured.

Sweden’s security services did not suspect that the Uzbek man of being prone to acts of terrorism. He was, however, wanted by police for ignoring a deportation order.

The Uzbek man had applied for a permanent residency permit in 2014. In June 2016 his application was rejected, and Sweden’s Migration Agency decided to expel the man. He was ordered to leave the country within four weeks.