Stockholm truck attack suspect confesses to 'terrorist crime'

According to his attorney, Akilov admitted to driving a hijacked beer truck into pedestrians at a central Stockholm department store last Friday, killing four people, injuring 15 and sending screaming shoppers scattering in panic. Akilov was arrested just hours after the truck attack on the highest level of suspicion in the Swedish legal system.

He had been known to intelligence services since a year ago when he disappeared before he could be deported after his application for asylum was rejected.

In a court document seen by AFP, Akilov's state-appointed lawyer Johan Eriksson said his client had asked him to "relieve himself of his mission", saying he "expressly wanted to be defended by a Sunni Muslim". The others have not been publicly identified. Fifteen were injured. Eight people remain in hospital, including two in intensive care.

Sweden held a nationwide minute of silence on Monday (April 10) for the victims of last week's Stockholm truck attack which police believe was carried out by an Uzbek jihadist sympathiser.

"We've criminalised foreign travel for terrorism purposes, we've extended (our laws) on terrorism financing".

"We will never give in to violence".

"If people who are here seeking asylum and treat us like this, it is not good", Holm said.

Some 20,000 people gathered on Sergels Torg plaza on Sunday.

The Times also reports that the Swedish Security Service, Sapo, had warned in March that an attack by a lone terrorist was likely to happen in the country within the year. The council underlined the need to bring the perpetrators to justice.

In February, Mr. Trump surprised Swedes when he suggested Sweden could be the next European country to suffer the kind of extremist attacks that have devastated France, Belgium, and Germany. The government responded by tightening border controls and curtailing some immigrant rights.

Police said that Akilov had shown "sympathies to extreme groups such as ISIS".

Police are closely co-operating with Sweden's security service, Säpo, as well as Europol and Interpol, and are continuing to work on people of interest to the investigation, they said. "He has provided information, he is answering questions", Eriksson said.

The loss of a Belgian citizen was confirmed by the country's Foreign Minister, Didier Reyders, on Twitter.