It was about 12:30 p.m. on a gray Tuesday in Orebro, Sweden, when gunfire erupted at an adult education center, with students and teachers in class. Minutes later, as an alarm wailed, the police charged into the center, Campus Risbergska, where they encountered a chaotic, smoke-filled scene. It would be hours before they gave an all-clear.
“An inferno. Dead people. Injured people. Screams and smoke,” Lars Wiren, Orebro’s police chief, said Thursday at a news conference as he described the scene.
The shooting in Orebro, a quiet university town in central Sweden that has become a haven for migrant communities, has left the country reeling. The national government has described the attack as the worst mass shooting in Sweden’s history, and flags around the country are flying at half-staff. In the days after the attack, the authorities are still seeking to understand why a man entered the campus and opened fire. At least 11 people were found dead, the police said, and the suspect was believed to be among them.
The police have not publicly identified the gunman or shared any details about a possible motive. Swedish news outlets have identified him as Rickard Andersson, a 35-year-old who lived alone in an apartment near the school.
The police have not confirmed the reports, and The New York Times has yet to independently confirm the gunman’s identity. Officials have begun to share how the attack unfolded, describing a heavily armed assailant who worked alone.
When officers entered the school on Tuesday, it was filled with smoke from pyrotechnics, Mr. Wiren said. The police came under a hail of gunfire so intense that officers could not tell how many shooters were on the scene, he added. Through the smoke, officers saw a man approaching them and carrying what appeared to be a rifle.
The man continued to shoot, emptying several magazines of ammunition. In the chaos, none of the 130 police officers chose to return fire, the police chief said.
“You have to respect the situation. There’s panic among the students, the teachers,” Mr. Wiren said. “There’s smoke. The circumstances must be right in order to fire.”
After about an hour, officers later found the gunman among the dead. Near his body were three weapons, including the rifle. Scattered nearby were at least 10 empty magazines and unused ammunition, Mr. Wiren said.
Police officers fanned out across the four-acre campus, searching for victims and possibly more perpetrators in an operation that lasted over three hours, according to a police timeline of events.
In one of the classrooms, Hellen Werme and other students hid for at least two hours under tables and hospital beds used for training. As soon as shots rang out, they locked the door and hid on the far side of the room, she said. At one point, they heard the gunman pass by.
“We were very quiet. He was close,” Ms. Werme, 35, recalled a day later. “I could hear his steps, but then the shots were further and further away.”
The students and their teacher huddled in fear until they heard loud raps on the door, and voices yelling, “Police!”
“When we saw the police I cried tears of joy,” she said. “I just looked at the police and followed them all the way out.”
By late afternoon, the police had enough reason to believe that the suspect in the shooting had been rushed to a nearby hospital, according to an online statement. With the school still under lockdown, they started an investigation that included nearby suburbs, questioning residents.
Police said they have identified the suspect and were awaiting DNA confirmation, Anna Bergqvist, an investigating officer, said on Thursday at the news conference. He had no prior convictions and was not previously known to the police. Investigators have traced four firearm licenses to the suspect, Ms. Bergqvist said.
In the last two days, officers have searched his apartment, seizing computer equipment and telephones. They were also studying hours of video and audio recordings.
“We think the picture is starting to come into focus, but we can’t provide any details yet,” Kristoffer Zickbauer, another investigating officer, said Thursday.
A news outlet, Aftonbladet, reported that Mr. Andersson, the man local media have identified as the shooter, lived an isolated life, alienated from friends and family.
