Sweden's worst mass shooting leaves immigrant community on edge

In the middle of a grand, high-ceilinged church in Orebro, Sweden, Jacob Kasselia, a Syrian orthodox priest, looked up towards the stained glass windows above him, then back down at his hands. He adjusted the gold cross hanging from his neck, reports BBC.

"The police say this man acted alone," the priest said. "But this hate, it is coming from somewhere."

A member of Kasselia's congregation, 29-year-old Salim Iskef, was among those murdered in Orebro on Tuesday in Sweden's first school shooting and the worst mass shooting in the country's history. The gunman killed 10 students at an adult learning centre and then himself.

Among the dead are Syrians and Bosnians, according to residents and the embassies of those countries, but the police in Orebro have not given any details of the victims publicly.

Kasselia described Iskef as kind and thoughtful, keen to help other members of the community. He came to Sweden with his mother and sister, the priest said - refugees from Aleppo, where his father was killed in the war. Iskef was studying Swedish at the Risbergska school, the target of Tuesday's attack.

"He was simply a good man," the priest said. "He did not look for trouble. He showed only goodwill. He was a member of our community." The night after the attack, Kasselia sat with Iskef's family to console them. Iskef was engaged and due to be married this summer. His fiancee Kareen Elia, 24, was "very badly affected", the priest said, and was "going through a very difficult, very dark experience".

At a memorial service in Orebro on Thursday night, Elia broke down in screams and tears and had to be carried out of the church.

In the days since the shooting, there has been a striking lack of information from the authorities. On Thursday night, police had still not confirmed the identity of the gunman - widely reported by Swedish media to be 35-year-old local Rickard Andersson - nor any details about his motive or the victims. In a statement issued early on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the attack, police said the shooter did not appear to be motivated by any ideology. On Thursday, Anna Bergkvist, who is leading the police investigation, appeared to walk the statement back.

"Why they said that, I cannot comment," she told the BBC. "We are looking at different motives and we will declare it when we have it." Swedish police are usually cautious about naming suspects during an investigation, but the absence of official information has contributed to a feeling of fear and uncertainty among Orebro's immigrant communities over the past few days.