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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, September 11, 2003

Swedish FM Anna Lindh Dies after Attack

Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, who was stabbed repeatedly while shopping in an exclusive department store, died in hospital on Thursday, the TT news agency reported.


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Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh died in hospital on Thursday after being stabbed by an unknown man on Wednesday, the TT news agency reported. She was 46.

Prime Minister Goeran Persson said Lindh died after more than 10 hours of surgery.

"It's with great sadness that I have the information that Anna Lindh died," Persson said. "It feels strange and it's difficult to understand."

Choking on his words, he said the Scandinavian country's tradition of openness was damaged by the killing.

"The attack against her also hurt the society we've built up and in which we want to live in," he said.

Lindh, who was attacked Wednesday, had spent most of the night undergoing surgery at Karolinska Hospital. She suffered severe internal bleeding and liver and stomach injuries.

Lindh was stabbed in the stomach, chest and arm, and police were searching for a man wearing a camouflage jacket who fled the store.

The death shocked a nation that has long prided itself on the accessibility of its politicians. Like many officials, she didn't use a bodyguard.

Police said they didn't believe the attack was politically motivated, but it stirred memories of the unsolved murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme, who was killed while walking home from a downtown movie theater with his wife in 1986.

Lindh died just before 5:30 a.m., Persson told reporters.

Campaigning on the country's upcoming referendum to decide whether to adopt the euro was postponed for at least a day. It wasn't known if Sunday's referendum vote would be delayed.

Jan Larssen, a government spokesman, said the "issue had been raised" but added it would be a "very big, complicated project to move an election day."

Lindh, who was No. 3 in the government and a leading supporter of the European Union's common currency, was often touted as a possible successor to Persson.

Source: agencies


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