Swedish police call triple stabbing act of insanity

The man suspected of stabbing three others in central Sweden on Monday was very likely to have suffered from mental disease, police said on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old confessed the stabbings in interrogations with police before being taken to a psychiatric ward, public broadcaster Swedish Television reported.

"There is no link at all between the victims and the suspect. The motive appears to have been that the act was committed by a suspect who showed signs of insanity," police spokesperson Anders Selevik said.

The man stabbed a man and a woman in their 20s and a 40-year-old woman in the city of Norrkoping, south of the capital, before being held down by an off-duty police officer who happened to be on the scene.

The suspect, known to the local police force from minor incidents in the past, had been homeless for several years and had undergone treatment at psychiatric wards.

He will be charged with three counts of attempted murder, police said.

The suspect's mother told Swedish Television she had previously made efforts to ensure her son was treated.

The two younger victims in the attack remain hospitalized, while the older woman had been discharged after suffering minor injuries.