Government offices, schools and workplaces fell silent in Sweden at midday on Tuesday in remembrance of the victims of a mass shooting at an adult education centre last week when a gunman killed 10 people before turning his weapon on himself.
Swedes, grown reluctantly accustomed to gangland bombings and shootings, were still stunned by the February 4 attack, in which Rickard Andersson, a 35-year-old unemployed loner, opened fire on students and teachers at the Campus Risbergska school in the city of Orebro, some 200 km (125 miles) west of Stockholm.
It was the worst mass shooting in Swedish history.
Those who could not escape barricaded themselves into classrooms and hid until police had confirmed Andersson had killed himself.
Survivors had to pass dead bodies and pools of blood when they were released after hours of terrified waiting.
Social media posts on Tuesday showed buses and cars standing still on roads across Sweden at noon, while many of the country's biggest employers paused work to observe the minute's silence.
In Orebro, thousands braved the cold, packing the central square to honour the dead and injured.
"You don't think something like this could happen," Inger Hogstrom-Westerling told news agency TT. "It happens in the US and other countries, but you never thought it could happen in Sweden and Orebro," she said.
Police say they still do not know why Andersson embarked on his killing spree and have found nothing to suggest any ideological motive. He appears to have had scanty social contacts, no social media presence, and no links to gang crime.
Police have yet to disclose the identity of the victims, though Reuters' reporting pointed to eight of the 10 killed having an immigrant background, with roots in Syria, Somalia and Bosnia among other countries.
Six of the dead were from the same class of around 20 who were training to become assistant nurses.
"We were all close... We were like a little family," Hellen Werme, 35, told Reuters.
Werme had left her classmates just minutes before the shooting began to do practical training in another classroom. She survived by hiding under a bed for two hours.
Although police have not identified any racist motive for the shootings, they have left many immigrants in Orebro on edge. A local mosque has hired a security guard and students wonder if they were targeted because of the colour of their skin.
"I'm very scared," Fatouma, 37, told Reuters by phone. One of her classmates was shot in the attack but survived.
"Why would anyone do something like that?"
Many immigrants in traditionally tolerant Sweden feel attitudes toward them have hardened in recent years.
Sweden's right-wing government has blamed decades of uncontrolled immigration for the wave of gang-related shootings and bombings in the country.
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