PRAGUE, Czech Republic 

A senior Danish police official revealed that the law enforcement authorities have come across cases of Swedish teenagers committing serious crimes inside Denmark in exchange for hefty payments. 

Police investigator Torben Svarrer told Danish media that a connection between Swedish teenagers and Danish criminals was found after two shooting incidents this week.

"We have seen that criminals are looking for people willing to commit serious crimes on social media and that young Swedes unfortunately are agreeing to do so for payment," Svarrer said.

“This is obviously something that we are taking very seriously,” he said.

“They are simply getting a large amount of money to carry out violent crime including murder,” Svarrer added.

Two Swedish teenagers aged 17 and 16 years have been put in pre-trial detention in Denmark as they were arrest for shootings in Kolding and Copenhagen respectively on Wednesday. The Danish police maintained that the two teenagers were recruited by the criminals on social media to execute the shooting.

A man was shot at least three times in the leg in Kolding, however, no one was injured in Copenhagen at the Blagards Plads square.

In June, two Swedish teens were put under police arrest by the Copenhagen police for their alleged involvement in gang violence in Brondby.

Statistics provided by the Swedish police showed that 283 armed attacks between rival gangs were recorded in 2023.

The clashes have resulted in 44 fatalities and 87 injuries, painting a grim picture of the ongoing gang warfare. A report from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRA) further underscores the severity of the situation where it said the rate of armed attacks in recent years has been "very high" compared to other European countries.

While the European average stands at 1.6 deaths per million people annually due to such attacks, Sweden has four deaths per million people.