Swedish Police Retract Safety Advice to Women Despite Third Gang Rape in One Month

Police in the Swedish city of Malmo have retracted advice given to women in the city following the brutal gang-rape of a 17-year-old girl. The force advised women not to go out alone after dark following the vicious attack.

Officers issued the warning over the weekend following the assault, which occurred on Saturday, and marked the third such vicious rape committed by unknown perpetrators in the city in less than a month.

The original warning, reported by various Swedish media outlets, said that women should avoid venturing out after dark without someone for company. Considering it gets dark quite early in Sweden at this time of year, that would mean women should avoid being in the streets alone after approximately 3pm local time.

However, following criticism, Malmo police issued a formal statement on Monday retracting those remarks, describing them as “unfortunate and unclear.”

“My advice is to behave as usual and not act on fear,” said police spokesperson Mats Karlsson, as cited by SVT.

So far, police have not linked this most recent incident to the previous two but are also not ruling out a connection. In this latest case, there is no CCTV footage to analyze but police are attempting to recover footage from surrounding areas in a bid to catch the attackers.