Sweden terror alert
Security services in Sweden arrested three suspected neo-Nazis in early February 2017 Reuters

Swedish police on Thursday (2 February 2017) revealed they had arrested three men with neo-Nazi sympathies suspected of planting a home-made bomb outside an asylum centre in Gothenburg.

The three suspects "are or were in the past members of the Nordic Resistance Movement", a neo-Nazi group, said Mats Ljungqvist of the anti-terror prosecutor's office, as quoted by AFP.

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The authorities said one of the suspects in the bombing was arrested early in February, while the other two were taken into custody on 1 and 2 February.

The bomb was detonated on 5 January, seriously injuring an immigration office staff member in his legs. The Swedish secret service, Sapo, said in a statement that the attack is linked to other two attempted bombing in Gothenburg in recent months, and is being treated as politically motivated.

The first device exploded on 11 November outside a well-known meeting place for left-wing activists. No one was injured in that blast. Another device was found on 25 January next to a temporary accommodation centre for refugees that houses up to 140 people, but the police defused the device and no one was hurt.

The Nordic Resistance Movement is a self-described "revolutionary National Socialist" movement active in Sweden, Denmark and Finland promoting an anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic and anti-globalisation ideology. In November 2016, the group staged its biggest-ever demonstration in Stockholm city centre, attended by an estimated 600 people. The group's rally was opposed by anti-fascist groups; violence broke out between the groups, leading to the arrest of five people.

Sweden passed new laws in 2016 that have led to a drop in asylum requests from the previous year, when more than 160,000 asylum-seekers arrived in the country. According to the law, asylum seekers who see their request rejected are no longer entitled to accommodation and daily allowance from the Swedish Migration Agency, and the granting of residence permits and family reunification have also being restricted for the next three years.