Analysis-Gang crime looms over election in Sweden as shootings spread

Flowers and other objects are placed at a memorial site for young men shot dead in the suburb of Varberga in May, in Orebro, Sweden June 22, 2022. REUTERS/Johan Ahlander

OREBRO (Reuters) - In the span of eight days in May, three young men were shot dead in a small neighborhood of the town of Orebro, part of a wave of gang violence spreading from big cities to small-town Sweden that is topping voters' concerns ahead of elections next month.

The killings took place in Varberga, a collection of low-rise brick houses about two miles (3 km) from Orebro's picturesque city centre in central Sweden. The neighborhood is home to about 3,300 people, many of them of Christian Syrian origin.