Pictures from the site show great devastation. Several windows and balconies on the building are completely blown out. These are almost all windows and balconies on the five and six-storey buildings.
- We know very little right now, but it seems like something from the outside that has exploded, but we have not been able to confirm that. It's now an hour since it happened. We have started our crisis organization, we have two different ones, one small and one large. Now it's the big one that counts. We have called in a lot of people, says Fredrik Törnqvist, CEO at Stångåstaden, to Fastighetsvärlden.
The address is Ådalagatan 1-3 and parts of the building also have an entrance from Hamngatan. The current property Daggkåpan 9 contains 37 apartments with a total of 2,250 sqm. The property contains a total of 2,400 sqm, including premises. The property was built in 1959.
At 09 o'clock the alarm came about a powerful explosion.
- We started getting a large number of calls from people about a powerful explosion in central Linköping, on Hamngatan. Windows must have been smashed and we are on site to secure the place. We have cordoned off the area and are working to get a picture of exactly what happened, says Björn Öberg at the police command center to Aftonbladet.
Local Corren has spoken to several who experienced the explosion:
- We thought it was our house that was blown up. Everyone rushed out of the office! We are probably 200 meters from the site, so the explosion was extremely powerful. When you see the devastation, it's hard to believe that it's just a lone explosion, "one person told Corren.
- It looks like there was a war on the spot. I and many of my colleagues are sad, some have gone home, says a person who works close to Fastighetsvärlden.
A woman who lives in the house in question, but whose apartment is located on the opposite side of the part where the facade is partially blown away, says to Expressen:
- I was lying asleep and woke up when I heard the bang. I thought it was thunder at first. The flower pots went to the floor, she says.
The damage situation is unclear:
- We have a whole bunch of resources in place. An ambulance has taken a patient to hospital, the others are standing without patients at the moment, says Helen Wickberg, team leader at SOS.
The University Hospital in Linköping has gone into reinforcement mode.
At 09.40, the police blocked off several blocks around the explosion site. From Nygatan / Strandgatan - Repslagaregatan - Linnégatan - and from Drottningrondellen. It was then not relevant to evacuate any properties. The national bomb squad is on its way to the scene.
The rescue service Östra Götaland states that they have helped two injured people out of the building, writes Expressen. Children and employees have been evacuated from the preschool Ådalagatan 2 very close to the explosion site, Corren states.
- I would describe it as a limited war zone. People are very worried, you see that they hold each other, and in front of me I see a skylift looking for a seven-storey house and you look out the windows to see how people feel, says P4 Östergötland's reporter Rosmari Karlsson.
Katarina Nestor, on press duty at the Östergötland Region, tells P4 Östergötland that 19 people were slightly injured. Later, the figure was updated to 25 injured. No one is said to be seriously injured. 3 slightly injured have first to the university hospital and three to the hospital in Motala. The others were taken care of by the medical services in a bus near the site.
30 ambulances are available in Östergötland. 14 of these are involved in the event. The background to the explosion is unclear.
- We know nothing about what the cause is, says Mikael Skoog, chief of staff for the operation.
The detonation must have taken place outdoors. The police work on the basis that a criminal act is behind it, even if they do not rule out that it is an accident, police spokesman Åsa Willsund tells Aftonbladet.
Corren wrote at 11.30 that the bomb squad with most of the technicians was in place but that it is unclear whether they have entered or not. The police helicopter hovers over the area.
At a press conference at 13.00, the police had no suspicions about what was behind it.
- We currently have no indications that there is any threat linked to the explosions, said Björn Öberg at the police.
According to sources to Borås Tidning, circles around a motorcycle gang are suspected to be behind the explosion in Linköping. The newspaper writes that the target should be a business in a room in the house. Aftonbladet also later published similar information with reference to its own sources.
Fredrik Törnqvist, Stångåstaden's CEO, who also participated in the press conference, stated that there are a total of 34 apartments that were worst affected by the explosion.
Törnqvist also said that there are about 110 apartments that have been affected in one way or another.
At 4 pm, the police held the day's second press conference. The police also return to the fact that it is probably not some form of accident that has occurred, but that it is someone who deliberately blew something up at the scene, Corren states.
- Everything indicates that someone has placed something there, says Magnus Skoglund, the police's reconnaissance leader ..
He also commented on the information about motorcycle gangs:
- There are tips about all sorts of things, it is one of all possible working hypotheses. It is neither more nor less hot than anything else, says Magnus Skoglund.
- We do not have someone we know it is aimed at. We have a working hypothesis but we must work broadly. We do not see it as a terrorist threat or terrorist act, says Magnus Skoglund further.
At the press conference, it was also stated that two people were left at the University Hospital in Linköping, but that no one received life-threatening injuries.