Several people forced their way into the Libyan embassy in Stockholm on Thursday, raising the rebel flag and are threatening to commit suicide if the police enter the building.
Several people forced their way into the Libyan embassy in Stockholm on Thursday morning, raising the rebel flag. A further banner declaring in English "We will kill ourselves if your try to come in" has been draped across the building's façade.
According to police officers in attendance the atmosphere is heated and the action is a demonstration against the Tripoli regime.
“There is more than one person who has forced entry to the embassy premises. I don’t know much more than that at present,” said Lennart Löfgren, of the information department of the Stockholm Police to The Local.
At 10.45am an alarm went off in the embassy building alerting the police to the premises.
At first police were under the impression that there were staff on the premises but it has since been established that the building was empty at the time of the break in.
Since then the police have sent around 15 patrol cars to the scene and parts of the surrounding streets in central Stockholm have been cordoned off.
So far the police don't know what the protesters want, but say that it is possible that they want to send a message by gaining access to the embassy premises.
"We are going to try to establish contact with them now. It is all a bit unclear at present," said Löfgren to The Local.
According to information from the police there are also 4-5 people present outside of the embassy waving flags.
Sweden in May expelled two Libyan diplomats accused of inappropriate activities, reportedly Tripoli's last two representatives in the Scandinavian country.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in early March, before the NATO-led air strikes against Muammar Qaddafi's regime began, that he no longer considered the Libyan embassy in Stockholm a legitimate representative of the Libyan people.
According to police officers in attendance the atmosphere is heated and the action is a demonstration against the Tripoli regime.
“There is more than one person who has forced entry to the embassy premises. I don’t know much more than that at present,” said Lennart Löfgren, of the information department of the Stockholm Police to The Local.
At 10.45am an alarm went off in the embassy building alerting the police to the premises.
At first police were under the impression that there were staff on the premises but it has since been established that the building was empty at the time of the break in.
Since then the police have sent around 15 patrol cars to the scene and parts of the surrounding streets in central Stockholm have been cordoned off.
So far the police don't know what the protesters want, but say that it is possible that they want to send a message by gaining access to the embassy premises.
"We are going to try to establish contact with them now. It is all a bit unclear at present," said Löfgren to The Local.
According to information from the police there are also 4-5 people present outside of the embassy waving flags.
Sweden in May expelled two Libyan diplomats accused of inappropriate activities, reportedly Tripoli's last two representatives in the Scandinavian country.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in early March, before the NATO-led air strikes against Muammar Qaddafi's regime began, that he no longer considered the Libyan embassy in Stockholm a legitimate representative of the Libyan people.
THELOKAL
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