Swedish police hunt arsonist after attack at Arab school in Malmö

Swedish firefighters battled a raging blaze at an Arab school in the southern city of Malmö overnight on Saturday, 10 April, after what police described as an arson attack.

Malmö police spokesman Clas Svensson told the Associated Press that police were hunting a man who is thought to have started the fire before driving a car towards officers, only narrowing avoiding running one of them over. Swedish police said that they opened fire on the car but it was able to get away.

The school, called Al Salamah, issued a statement on its website claiming that the fire had only affected the kitchen: "At this moment, we need to stick together and support each other," it said in Arabic. It is understood that part of the school had to be demolished as a result of the fire, which began just after 11pm.

Malmö is Sweden's third largest city and, like Gothenburg and Stockholm, is home to sizable immigrant populations, including those from Muslim countries. There have been several arson attacks against schools and refugee centres in Sweden in recent years.

Malmö was in the headlines again on Sunday after it emerged that one of the men arrested in Brussels on Saturday hailed from the city's Rosengard district.