Rioters torched cars and attacked local police stations in 15 immigrant-populated Stockholm suburbs in a fourth night of riots today, shattering the world's image of Sweden as a peaceful and egalitarian nation.
The riots have sparked a debate in Sweden about the assimilation of immigrants, who make up about 15 per cent of the population, as many of them struggle to learn the language and find employment despite numerous government programmes.
The fire brigade said it was called to some 90 different blazes during the night, most of them caused by rioters.
Early today, rocks were thrown at a local police station in Kista districts, near the suburb of Husby where the riots began on Sunday night, and rocks were thrown at two local police stations south of the Swedish capital.
In the southern suburb of Skogaas, a restaurant was badly damaged after it was set ablaze.
The troubles are believed to have been triggered by the fatal police shooting of a 69-year-old Husby resident last week after the man wielded a machete in public.
The man then fled to his apartment, where police have said they tried to mediate but ended up shooting him dead in what they claimed was self-defence.
Local activists said the shooting sparked anger among youths who claim to have suffered from police brutality. During the first night of rioting, they said police had called them "tramps, monkeys and negroes."
Two people, including one police officer, have been reported injured in the four nights of rioting.
Police meanwhile downplayed the scale of the events.
"Every injured person is a tragedy, every torched car is a failure for society ... But Stockholm is not burning. Let's have a level-headed view of the situation," Ulf Johansson, the deputy police chief for Stockholm county, said.
A social anthropologist at Malmoe University, Aje Carlbom, told AFP the residents of immigrant-populated areas were suffering from segregation.
"Living as a young person in these segregated areas can be very hard in many ways. You have virtually no contact with other Swedes and a lot of times I don't think you have a good understanding of Swedish society," he said.
Sweden has in recent years been one of Europe's top destinations for immigrants, both in absolute numbers and relative to its size.
