1 dead and 1 injured in grenade explosion in Stockholm, Sweden.

The scene of the explosion. USA Today/AFP. 

A man was killed and a woman was injured in Stockholm, Sweden after picking up an object that then exploded. USA Today. The pair was cycling when they found an object on the ground near a subway station. When the man picked it up it exploded in his hands. Police suspect it was a hand grenade but do not expect it to be related to terrorism. Sweden has a massive problem with grenade attacks but officials believe that this was an "accident"

My Comment:
A fairly unbelievable story out of Sweden. Sweden has a long history of grenade attacks where people drop grenades into cars and toss them at people. Most of that is gang related but quite a bit of it is terrorism as well. And it's fairly pathetic when gang warfare devolves into people tossing grenades at others. Both scenarios, someone leaves a grenade lying around or someone setting a booby trap for the unlucky person that picks it up, are sadly plausible in Sweden.

I do have to say that I am suspicious that this was just an accident. Grenades have safety features that ensure they don't just go off. Even the old ones require someone to pull a pin and release a handle. It would have to have been a very old or damaged grenade for that to have happened. But it's very possible that someone left a grenade with the pin pulled and the handle set up in such a way that it would blow up if someone picked it up. If that's the case then this is murder and not an accident. Why someone would do that is a mystery but I do think that terrorism isn't likely the cause. Terrorism only works if the cause is publicized and in this case nobody has taken credit as far as I am aware.

Still, I have to say that it's possible that the man made a tragic mistake. Of course picking up a strange object on the ground in a country with a history of grenade attacks and terrorism is a bad idea in the first place. I know I would have called the cops if I had found something on the ground that looked suspicious and I would have left it on the ground. It's possible that the man found the grenade and fooled around with it, perhaps even pulling the pin, either because he didn't realize what that would do or because he thought it was a dummy or prop grenade. It just goes to show that you should mess with strange objects. Even if he wasn't messing with the object, picking it up was a fatal mistake and one that others should learn from. Pity he had to die so others would learn it.

I do have to say that it is sad to see how far Sweden has fallen. It used to be a paradise where crime was unheard of but now it's a country with one of the highest rape rates in the world and a place where people regularly throw grenades at each other. The obvious difference now is that Sweden has imported massive amounts of third world Muslims and others and they have brought crime and terrorism with them. It's a sad lesson for the rest of the world.