Suicide Bombing Rocks Stockholm During Christmas Shopping Rush

***UPDATE 12/12/10, 09:47***
Politiskt Inkorrekt claims to have information that Taimour Abdulwahab, to whom the car which exploded was registered, was the perpetrator. Fortunately, it seems he was the only fatality of his explosions.

He was 28, born in Baghdad, moved to Sweden in 1992 and in 2001 he moved to the United Kingdom to study. It seems he graduated from the University of Bedfordshire in 2004 with a Bsc in Sport Therapy.

Here is his profile at a Muslim dating site - he was looking for his second wife.

***UPDATE 21:24***: An article at the Swedish-language site Politiskt Inkorrekt suggests that this incident is the first ever suicide bombing on Swedish soil.

The car which exploded was an Audi 80 Avanti, registered to a "Taimour Abdulwahab" in southern Sweden. The blasts appeared to be coordinated and aimed at the Christmas shoppers milling about in central Stockholm.

After the car bomb detonated, a second explosion occurred 300 metres away - which appeared to have been the bomber, wearing a Palestinian scarf, detonating a suicide vest:

Aftonbladet writes:

The man carried six interconnected pipe bombs, but only one exploded, because the connections were damaged.

He had a backpack containing nails, and was heard by witnesses shouting something in Arabic before the explosion.

Police sent a bomb robot to examine the corpse, which ascertained the body was surounded by nails and covered in a substance believed to be explosives.

That's a very, very loose translation on my part. Politiskt Inkorrekt has another picture:

They also report that ten minutes before the explosion, a Swedish news agency was emailed a video condemning Swedish silence on the Lars Vilks cartoons and the presence of Swedish soldiers in Afghanistan. The video, addressed to the Swedish people, featured a man telling them that "now your daughters and sisters are dying, the same as our brothers, sisters and children are dying."

The full translation of his words can be seen in the following screen shot from the Google translation of the PI blog.

***UPDATE 22:54***
The BBC are being remarkably candid about tonight's terrorist attack in Sweden:

The managing editor of Swedish news agency TT told the BBC his organisation had received an e-mail shortly before the blasts that said it was now time for Swedish people to die "like our brothers and sisters".

Mats Johansson said the message was addressed to Sweden and the Swedish people.

It included references to caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed drawn by Swedish artist Lars Vilks as well as Sweden's military presence in Afghanistan, Mr Johansson said.

"Our actions will talk for themselves. As long as you do not end your war against Islam and humiliation of the prophet and your stupid support for the pig Vilks," Reuters quoted the message as saying.

The Swedish police, however, are not:

Swedish newspapers said the second blast was set off by a suicide bomber, and a local news agency said it received a threatening e-mail.

But a police spokesman told the BBC that no cause had yet been determined.

Yeah, perhaps it was Sven Svensson angry about having to queue up for his Christmas presents.

Apparently there has now been a clmapdown on information, and the police are holding crisis talks with the security services (SAPO) as they investigate and prepare preliminary raids on suspects.

It is not yet clear if Taimour Abdulwahab is the jihadist bomber or the individual who appeared in the threatening video.

A white car detonated in Olof Palme Street at approximately 16.50 CET, leaving one man dead and two passersby injured.

There are reports of a second explosion in nearby Queen Street.

The car apparently had its boot packed with gas bottles.

The police have called in SAPO, because "early developments suggest a terrorist link."

***UPDATE 20:10***:

The BBC confirms there were two blasts:

A car blew up near the busy shopping street of Drottninggatan, and another explosion hit nearby minutes later, AP news agency quoted police as saying.

A man's body was discovered after the second blast, the agency reported.

Rescue services spokesman Roger Sverndal said the car which exploded had contained gas canisters, AP reported.

A former AP worker, Gabriel Gabiro, was close to the second blast.

"I saw some people crying, perhaps from the shock," he told the agency.

"There was a man lying on the ground with blood coming out in the area of his belly, and with his personal belongings scattered around him."

Hat tip: Politiskt Inkorrekt.