STOCKHOLM, 12 September 2003 — Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, touted as a future prime minister, died yesterday from multiple stab wounds, the second Swedish politician to be murdered in the Scandinavian country in 17 years in a rare act of public violence.
“I cannot believe it,” said Michael Hirmiz, an Iraqi who immigrated to Sweden in 1984 and recalled the murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986. “Now it is happening here in Sweden again.”
Lindh, 46, died at 5:29 a.m. (0329 GMT) from severe internal bleeding and injuries to her stomach and liver after she was stabbed multiple times in an upscale Stockholm department store by an unknown assailant.
Doctors worked more than 12 hours to try and save Lindh while she was operated on at the Karolinska Hospital, but she had severe injuries to her liver and stomach, along with intense internal bleeding that took nearly 10 hours to stem.
By 4:30 a.m. (0230 GMT), Lindh’s lungs began failing, said anesthesiologist Dr. Lars Irested. “Despite the use of all necessary medical expertise and technical equipment, it was impossible to save Anna Lindh’s life,” he said.
Lindh’s death left Swedes hollow, some crying openly on the streets where posters of Lindh were on phone booths and subway walls, part of a publicity campaign to drum up support for the euro referendum.
Police didn’t believe the attack was politically motivated, despite the fact it came just three days before Swedes were to vote in a referendum on adopting the euro. Lindh was an ardent supporter of the common currency and one of the “yes” side’s most visible campaigners.
Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson said the Sunday referendum would continue as scheduled, but ordered all campaigning to end immediately.
Lindh’s death cast a pall across the Scandinavian country of nine million, whose residents have always enjoyed wide access to their leaders. Lindh, like Palme, had no bodyguards. Only Persson and King Carl XVI Gustaf have permanent security details.
Choking on his words as he announced Lindh’s death, Persson said the country’s tradition of openness was forever damaged by the killing. “The attack against her also hurt the society we’ve built up and which we want to live in,” he said.
In the Riksdag, or Parliament, lawmakers held a moment of silence, while Swedish flags flew at half-mast across the country.
Lindh was married and had two children.
