Mum heard Sweden school shooter pacing outside classroom door in 'worst hours of her life'

Hellen Werme thought of her 2 young children arsenic she hid wrong a schoolroom with 5 others during the Risbergka acquisition centre shooting successful Orebro, Sweden, with the gunman conscionable yards away

A mum says the representation of her children flashed earlier her eyes arsenic the gunman successful Sweden's worst wide shooting paced extracurricular the country successful which she was hiding.

Hellen Werme hid successful the schoolroom with 5 others arsenic the perpetrator stood conscionable metres distant astatine the Risbergska big acquisition centre successful Orebro, 125 miles westbound of Stockholm, connected Tuesday. The 35-year-old frozen successful panic arsenic they scrambled for cover, recounting however she feared she whitethorn ne'er spot her young children again.

Speaking to Swedish paper Expressen, Hellen said she though of her children, aged conscionable 2 and three, arsenic she took cover. "Those were the worst hours of my life. I did not cognize if I would get changeable determination and then, oregon successful 10 minutes. You simply waited," she said.

Swedish authorities person confirmed 11 radical died successful Tuesday's atrocity, including the gunman - reported to beryllium 35-year-old Rickard Andersson - though it's not yet been made wide how. The wide shooting has already been named arsenic the worst successful the country's history, with weapon unit typically highly rare.

Shots were heard from wrong the country wherever Hellen had been astatine the time, alongside 3 classmates and 2 teachers. The six were astir to statesman a acquisition connected inserting catheters connected patients. Hellen said she initially thought the shots were the dependable of "a doorway slamming", with 1 teacher adjacent exclaiming, "sounds similar idiosyncratic is angry".

"Then my teacher shouted, 'lock the doors and get down connected the floor'," Hellen said. The six crawled for screen beneath infirmary beds wrong the room.

It's been reported however alleged gunman Andersson had licences to transportation 4 hunting rifles. The motive for the onslaught nevertheless is yet to beryllium determined. Reports successful Sweden assertion that Andersson lived connected his ain and had intelligence wellness problems. He was denied subject work – but received a licence for 4 hunting rifles, according to the paper Aftonbladet.

Harrowing images believed to person been taken from wrong 1 of the classrooms astatine the clip amusement furnishings pushed up against a doorway with a person's boots protruding astatine the bottommost of the representation arsenic radical instrumentality cover. One pistillate who is simply a pupil astatine the assemblage said she heard a pistillate saying "no, no, no" earlier shooting started.

"I did not cognize what was happening," Mirna Essa was quoted arsenic saying successful Dagens Nyheter newspaper. "I simply ran. It was chaos wrong a fewer seconds. It was similar a movie. All you tin deliberation of is, 'why?"'

Ms Essa, who was learning Swedish successful a connection people for immigrants and radical with intelligence disabilities, returned to the country connected Wednesday to airy a candle. "All I tin deliberation of are those who died," she added. "I cannot deliberation of thing else."