A truck slammed into a crowd of people outside a busy department store in central Stockholm on Friday, causing "deaths" in what the prime minister described as an "terror attack."

"There are deaths, and many injured," Nina Odermalm Schei, a spokeswoman for Swedish intelligence agency Sapo, told AFP, without giving a precise figure.

"Sweden has been attacked. Everything points to a terror attack," said Prime Minister Stefan Lofven.

Four people were killed and 12 injured in the incident police said, adding that one man had been arrested.

"I can confirm that four people died and 12 were injured," a Stockholm police spokesman told AFP. One person had also been detained in connection with the attack, he said

Pictures showed a large blue truck with a mangled undercarriage smashed into the Ahlens department store.

The incident occurred just before 1300 GMT at the corner of the store and Drottninggatan, the city's biggest pedestrian street, above ground from Stockholm's central subway station.

News agency ANI has reported that shots were heard, quoting Swedish media. The incident happened 100 metres from India Embassy

“Saw 2 people lying on street, heard loud noises, saw three others injured, helicopters flying,” Indian Ambassador to Sweden Monika Mehta has told ANI. Local and Indian staff at the embassy are reported to be safe. 

"Police received a call from SOS Alarm that a person in a vehicle has injured other people on Drottninggatan," police wrote on Twitter.

 Thick smoke was rising from the scene, while video images showed an area blocked off by police and crowds gathering around the police cordon.

Police vans circulating in the city using loudspeakers urged people to go straight home and avoid large crowds

Helicopters could be heard hovering in the sky over central Stockholm, and a large number of police cars and ambulances were dispatched to the scene, witnesses said.

A spokeswoman for transport company Spendrups told AFP that the truck "had been stolen during a delivery to a restaurant."

Traffic on the Stockholm metro was badly affected, with the attack taking place at the city's T-Centralen station, through which all the city's lines pass

source : gulfnews