Woman charged for fire attack on SL bus in Stockholm

It is an early Saturday evening in February this year when a woman is about to board an SL bus in Ropsten in Stockholm. She then notices how a couple squeezes ahead of her in the queue.

It is crowded on board the bus, so the woman moves to the back. A moment later she feels that it smells burnt.

- Suddenly a man shouted that it was on fire and started hitting me, at that moment I also noticed that my neck was getting hot, says the woman later in a police interview.

Thanks to his quick action, the intervening man manages to put out the flames with his hands.

The woman explains to the police that at first she does not understand what is happening on the bus, but when she realizes that her hair and down jacket are on fire, she panics. The police ask what she thinks could have happened if no one had intervened.

- I had angelic guardianship that this man had time to note it. In retrospect, I have realized how badly it could have ended, I could have had burns all over my body and clothes would have melted to my skin. The incident has taken a very hard toll on me, she says and points out that it took a long time before she dared to ride the bus again.

Now a 31-year-old woman is charged with the fire attack. According to the attacked woman, it was the 31-year-old who, together with a man, pushed ahead of her in the queue for the bus. In questioning, the 31-year-old says he has no memories of the incident at all. She says that she took large amounts of drugs and drank alcohol for several days before the day in question.

When the police ask if she set fire to anyone or anything that night, the woman says no.

- I don't usually set things on fire. I'm not a pyromaniac either.

When the police show a surveillance video of the incident, the woman says she gets "a lot of anxiety".

- I am terribly ashamed, says the woman who admits to the crime while emphasizing that she had no intention.

When asked by the police how she would react to a possible claim for damages, the woman replied that she had no income at all.

- I don't even have income support. My assets are zero. So paying becomes difficult.

The 31-year-old is charged with attempted aggravated assault. It is the same crime that a 26-year-old man was charged with after he set fire to 73-year-old Egon Malmgren's hair on a bus in 2020. The 26-year-old was acquitted earlier this week because the court considered that it was only attempted assault of the normal degree. When six years had passed, the crime was therefore time-barred and the 26-year-old was acquitted.