STOCKHOLM // The suspected Stockholm lorry attacker had shown interest in extremist groups and was facing deportation after being refused residency, Swedish police said on Sunday.
A second suspect has been formally arrested in connection with the attack that killed four people and injured 15 others, the Stockholm district court said on Sunday.
The news came as thousands of people gathered under sunny spring skies amid a sea of flowers and candles to honour the dead and to stand against terrorism.
The first suspect, identified only as a 39-year-old man from Uzbekistan who was arrested hours after Friday's attack, is believed to have sped a stolen beer lorry several hundred metres down the bustling pedestrian street Drottninggatan in the heart of Stockholm.
The vehicle mowed down shoppers before slamming into the facade of the busy Ahlens department store.
The motive for the attack was not known, but the method resembled previous attacks using vehicles in Nice, Berlin and London, all of them claimed by ISIL.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the Stockholm attack — the third in Europe in two weeks, after a car and knife assault outside London's parliament and the Saint Petersburg metro bombing.
The 39-year-old suspect in the Stockholm attack "showed interest for extremist organisations like IS," police chief Jonas Hysing said.
The suspect had also been due to be expelled from Sweden after his residency application was rejected last year.
"He applied for a permanent residency permit in 2014. The migration agency rejected it in June 2016 and also decided that he was to be expelled," Mr Hysing said.
"In December 2016, he was informed by the migration agency that he had four weeks to leave the country. In February 2017, the case was handed over to the police to carry out the order, since the person had gone underground," he said.
But police apparently never found the man, whom authorities have said was known to Sweden's intelligence service for undisclosed reasons.
The four victims killed in Friday's attack included a British man, a Belgian woman and two Swedes, authorities in those countries said. Their identities were not released by Swedish officials.
The British government named the Briton as Chris Bevington, an executive at Swedish music-streaming service Spotify. Britain's Press Association news agency said he was 41.
In Brussels, the Belga news agency said the Belgian woman had been reported missing before she was identified by her identity papers and later by DNA testing.
The family of an 11-year-old Swedish girl have meanwhile confirmed she was one of the four people killed in the attack. The fourth victim was only known to be a Swedish national.
As of Sunday, 10 of the 15 people wounded in the lorry attack in the Swedish capital remained hospitalised. Stockholm county spokesman Patrik Soderberg said four of the 10 were considered "seriously" injured and the remaining six, including a child, were slightly injured.
Swedish Prosecution Authority spokeswoman Karin Rosander said a second person has been arrested in connection with the attack and is suspected of terrorist offences, including murder. Four other suspects were being held by police.
Jan Evensson of the Stockholm police said authorities have questioned more than 500 people in the investigation so far.
Police had said on Saturday they were increasingly sure the 39-year-old was the driver of the lorry.
"There is nothing to indicate that we've got the wrong man. On the contrary, the suspicions have strengthened," Swedish police chief Dan Eliasson said.
Police had found a suspect device in the cab of the lorry.
"A technical examination is continuing, we can't go into what it is right now ... whether it's a bomb or a flammable device," Mr Eliasson said.
Sweden has been trying to get back on its feet after what authorities have termed a terror attack.
Thousands of people gathered on Sunday for a "Lovefest" vigil against terrorism and to honour the victims at the Sergels Torg plaza near the scene of the attack, where a sea of flowers, candles and stuffed toys had been placed by mourning Swedes.
Friday's attack has deeply shocked the usually tranquil Scandinavian nation, which prides itself on its openness and tolerance.
It was the second terror attack in Stockholm.
In December 2010, a suicide bomber blew himself up, also on the Drottninggatan street, slightly injuring several passers-by.
* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
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