A masked man who killed one teacher and a boy and wounded two others in a Swedish school was driven by racist motives, police said today.

Sweden was shocked by yesterday's attack in which the assailant walked through a school stabbing students and staff in Trollhattan, an industrial town of about 50,000 inhabitants in western Sweden that has a large proportion of immigrants.

Police shot the suspect, a local man in his early 20s, who died of his injuries at a hospital. He had no criminal record.

"We are convinced that the assailant was driven by racist motives when he carried out the act," police chief Niclas Hallgren told Swedish public service radio.

"We have reached this conclusion based on what we found when we searched his apartment and his behaviour during the act, and also on the basis of how he selected his victims."

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