STOCKHOLM (AFP) – The main suspect in the Stockholm truck attack is an Uzbek construction worker and father-of-four believed to have IS sympathies, who went underground to avoid deportation from Sweden, police and reports said on Sunday.
Media quoted his colleagues as saying he was not “particularly religious” and that he “partied and drank.”
Swedish dailies Expressen and Aftonbladet meanwhile named the man as Rakhmat Akilov and published his picture on Sunday.
Swedish police have only identified the suspect as a 39-year-old Uzbek national. He is accused of barrelling a stolen beer truck down a busy pedestrian street on Friday afternoon, mowing down shoppers before smashing into the facade of the Ahlens department store.
Four people were killed – two Swedes including an 11-year-old girl, a British man and a Belgian woman – and 15 others were injured.
The suspect was arrested Friday evening in Marsta, a suburb around 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Stockholm.
Expressen reported Sunday he had allegedly confessed to the crime, telling investigators he was “pleased with what he had done” and had “accomplished what he set out to do”.
