Portugal: Stockholm embassy ‘severely affected’ by fire set by ‘perturbed’ man

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Portugal: Stockholm embassy ‘severely affected’ by fire set by ‘perturbed’ man

11:53 CAT | 05 Apr 2018

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A fire that started on Wednesday in Portugal’s embassy on Stockholm was a “criminal gesture” that “severely affected” the premises, the country’s foreign minister, Augusto Santos Silva, told Lusa on Thursday.

No one sustained injuries in the incident, he stressed.

“Our premises were severely affected, above all the consular part and also the premises of AICEP,” Portugal’s foreign investment and trade agency, the minister said. “It will take some time until they can be used again.”

In the meantime, he said, embassy officials will seek an alternative temporary home both for the consular section and the AICEP delegation.

Santos Silva made the comments to Lusa in a break from a conference on higher education in emergency situations at Lisbon’s Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

A major fire broke out on Wednesday at Portugal’s embassy in Stockholm and the building – which also houses the embassies of Tunisia and Argentina, was evacuated. A few hours later Swedish police detained a man they suspect of having started the fire.

According to Santos Silva, the “criminal gesture” was the act of “a perturbed person”; he dismissed the possibility that it was an act of terrorism.

The Swedish authorities have said that 14 people were injured in the incident, but according to Santos Silva “there is no situation that raises the slightest concern” among staff at the Portuguese embassy or people who were using its services, since no one was there at the time.

According to the minister, 12 people were given first aid on the spot and two were taken to hospital for “minor things”, but everyone “was able to return to their normal life”.

On the suspect now detained, he said that he did not know his nationality, but had “the idea that he may be a citizen of European origin” and that he had been heard to speak Spanish fluently and also English.

Source: Lusa