Hellen Werme thought of her two young children as she hid inside a classroom with five others during the Risbergka education centre shooting in Orebro, Sweden, with the gunman just yards away
A mum says the image of her children flashed before her eyes as the gunman in Sweden’s worst mass shooting paced outside the room in which she was hiding.
Hellen Werme hid in the classroom with five others as the perpetrator stood just metres away at the Risbergska adult education centre in Orebro, 125 miles west of Stockholm, on Tuesday. The 35-year-old frozen in terror as they scrambled for cover, recounting how she feared she may never see her young children again.
Speaking to Swedish newspaper Expressen, Hellen said she though of her children, aged just two and three, as she took cover. “Those were the worst hours of my life. I did not know if I would get shot there and then, or in ten minutes. You simply waited,” she said.
Swedish authorities have confirmed 11 people died in Tuesday’s atrocity, including the gunman – reported to be 35-year-old Rickard Andersson – though it’s not yet been made clear how. The mass shooting has already been named as the worst in the country’s history, with gun violence typically extremely rare.
Shots were heard from inside the room where Hellen had been at the time, alongside three classmates and two teachers. The six were about to begin a lesson on inserting catheters on patients. Hellen said she initially thought the shots were the sound of “a door slamming”, with one teacher even exclaiming, “sounds like someone is angry”.
“Then my teacher shouted, ‘lock the doors and get down on the floor’,” Hellen said. The six crawled for cover beneath hospital beds inside the room.
It’s been reported how alleged gunman Andersson had licences to carry four hunting rifles. The motive for the attack however is yet to be determined. Reports in Sweden claim that Andersson lived on his own and had mental health problems. He was denied military service – but received a license for four hunting rifles, according to the newspaper Aftonbladet.
Harrowing images believed to have been taken from inside one of the classrooms at the time show furniture pushed up against a door with a person’s boots protruding at the bottom of the image as people take cover. One woman who is a student at the college said she heard a woman saying “no, no, no” before shooting started.
“I did not know what was happening,” Mirna Essa was quoted as saying in Dagens Nyheter newspaper. “I simply ran. It was chaos within a few seconds. It was like a movie. All you can think of is, ‘why?”‘
Ms Essa, who was learning Swedish in a language class for immigrants and people with intellectual disabilities, returned to the scene on Wednesday to light a candle. “All I can think of are those who died,” she added. “I cannot think of anything else.”