Police spokeswoman Petra Sjolander said a car exploded near Drottninggatan, a busy shopping street in the center of the city.[break]
Shortly afterward, a second explosion was heard higher up on the same street, and a man was found injured on the ground. He was later pronounced dead.
Rescue services spokesman Bengt Norberg said two people had been taken to hospital with lighter injuries. He said the dead person was still lying on the street.
Sjolander said it was unclear what caused the second explosion but a police bomb squad has been sent to the site. Another rescue services spokesman, Roger Sverndal said the car that exploded contained gas canisters.
Stockholm explosions suicide attack
Two explosions in central Stockholm Saturday were a "terrorist" attack, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said, with one television report saying the only person to die was the bomber.
Bildt´s comments, sent from his Twitter account, effectively confirmed earlier reports in the Swedish media that the two almost simultaneous explosions had been an attack.
"Most worrying attempt at terrorist attack in crowded part of central Stockholm," wrote Bildt. "Failed -- but could have been truly catastrophic..." he added.
Earlier, neither the police nor the intelligence service had confirmed a report from Sweden´s SVT television that the explosions had in fact been an attack, with the only person to die being the bomber.
The Swedish news agency TT reported that it had received messages about 10 minutes before the blasts in Arab and Swedish, warning of unspecified "action."
"Our acts will speak for themselves," TT quoted the message as saying. "Now your children, your daughters and your sisters will die as our brothers, our sisters and our children are dying."
It urged "mujahideen," or Islamic fighters, to rise up in Sweden and in Europe, the news agency said.
The message referred to the Swedish military presence in Afghanistan as part of the US-led international security force, TT added.
TT said a similar message had been sent to the Swedish Security Service SAPO.
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