Three people were killed in a shooting in the Swedish city of Uppsala on Tuesday, and a murder investigation has been launched, police said.

Police are searching for one suspected perpetrator, the news agency TT reported.

Police earlier said they had received calls from members of the public who heard gunshots in the city centre, and that emergency services had rushed to the scene.

“Three people are confirmed dead after a shooting […] The police are investigating the incident as a homicide,” investigators said in a statement.

Witnesses told broadcaster SVT they had heard five shots and had seen people in the area running to take cover.

Ten people were killed in February in the Swedish city of Orebro in the country’s deadliest ever mass shooting, in which a 35-year-old unemployed loner opened fire on students and teachers at an adult education centre.

Sweden has suffered from a wave of gang-related violence for more than a decade that has included an epidemic of gun violence.

The Nordic country’s right-wing minority government came to power in 2022 on a promise to tackle gang-related violence.

It has tightened laws and given more powers to police, and after the Orebro shooting, said it would seek to tighten gun laws.