Kungälv school shooting

1961 school shooting in Kungälv, Sweden

Kungälv school shooting

Police technicians at the school a day after the shooting

Location| Kungälv, Sweden
Coordinates| 57°52′16″N 11°58′21″E﻿ / ﻿57.8711°N 11.9726°E﻿ / 57.8711; 11.9726
Date| 4 March 1961
11:30 p.m.

Attack type

| School shooting
Weapons| 9mm Browning Hi-Power handgun[1]
Deaths| 1
Injured| 6
Perpetrator| Ove Conry Andersson

On 4 March 1961, a mass shooting occurred at Thorild School in central Kungälv, Västra Götaland, Sweden, in which a gunman shot and killed one person, Per Håkan Altvall, and injured six others.[2] It was the first reported school shooting in Sweden and one of the earliest in Europe.[3]

The memory of the murdered Per Håkan Altvall is kept alive in Kungälv via a stipend "awarded annually to one or a number of students known for good friendship and social support to students".[4]

## Incident

[edit]

Around 11:30 p.m. on 4 March 1961, a large group of youngsters were dancing in the school gym hall. During the last dance, 17-year-old Ove Conry Andersson entered, pulled out a gun and started shooting randomly. People attempted to hide under chairs and behind a piano. Seven were wounded, including 18-year-old Per Håkan Altvall, who later died from his wounds. He was hit in the stomach[5] and an eyewitness states that the perpetrator first shot Altvall in the leg and later on his way out shot him again in the stomach, killing him.[6] The wounded were first taken to a classroom in the school and later to Kungälv hospital.

Kungälv police chased the gunman all night on the road to Ytterby, where it was assumed he had escaped. Kungälv police requested assistance from police in both Ytterby and Gothenburg. The following morning, 5 March, just before 8 a.m., the killer showed up at the police station, driven there by an older coworker. A few hours later, the 17-year-old gunman had willingly told the police all his details of the incident. The shooter had been to a different party earlier and drank two mixed drinks, then watched an ice hockey game while drinking cognac with a friend. At 10.30 p.m. he first entered the school dance and got into a fight with a guest who was also an amateur boxer. Andersson then went to get his gun, came back and started shooting, killing Altvall before escaping and hiding in the Fontin forest. The chase for Andersson was the largest police activity in west Sweden to date, involving a total of 50 policemen plus dogs.

On March 6, all of the school gathered in the gym hall in memory of Per Altvall.

## Perpetrator

[edit]

Andersson was known in Kungälv for his interest in cowboy movies and told the police he wanted to be like heroes in the movies. This event led to the first proposal to the government to investigate the effects of media violence, and the then-popular radio show "Tidsspegeln" (Mirror of Time) held a debate about "ideals and heroes for the youth" with the headline "Can we blame Cartwrights".

A 1995 article in Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported that Andersson was considered mentally unbalanced, partly because of the effects of alcohol, at the time of the shooting, and sentenced to closed psychiatric treatment. He refused to comment but DN mentioned that "it is known that he had married and had children less than four years after the incident." Altvall's mother Essie, then 88, was also interviewed and mentioned that she reached out to Andersson's mother shortly after the shooting and had forgiven the shooter for the murder of her son.[7]

Andersson committed suicide on 12 August 2008.[8]

## See also

[edit]

* List of school-related attacks

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Skolskjutningen i Kungälv – pojken sköt kallblodigt sina jämnåriga". Nyheter24 (in Swedish). 2021-08-19. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
2. ^ London, Driscole - Granscole Studios. "Swedish public school students drilled to protect themselves in case of a school shooting". www.scancomark.com. Archived from the original on 25 September 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
3. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-02-21. Retrieved 2015-02-21.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. ^ Anja, Paulsson (2011). "Per Håkan AltvallsStipendium" (PDF). Mimers Hus Gymnasium Nytt. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
5. ^ The Local/dl (20 March 2013). "School shooting 'likely' in Sweden: agency". The Local.
6. ^ ""Glöm inte skolattacken 1979"". Strömstads tidning (in Swedish). Retrieved 2017-03-04.
7. ^ Hagerfors, Anna-Maria (1995-02-19). "Förlät sonens mördare" [Forgave his son's killer]. Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
8. ^ "- Skottdramat i Kungälv". densvartadahlian.blogg.se. Retrieved 23 April 2018.

* v
* t
* e

School shootings outside of the United States

Prior to 2000|

| 1910s|

* Bremen, Germany (20 Jun 1913)

|

1920s|

* Waikino, New Zealand (19 Oct 1923)
* Wilno, Poland (6 May 1925)

1940s|

* Eccleshall, England (15 Feb 1947)

1960s|

* Kungälv, Sweden (4 Mar 1961)
* Dundee, Scotland (1 Nov 1967)

1970s|

* Sofia, Bulgaria (25 Dec 1974)
* Brampton, Canada (28 May 1975)
* Ottawa, Canada (27 Oct 1975)

1980s|

* Eppstein, Germany (3 Jun 1983)
* London, England (11 Nov 1987)
* Higham Ferrers, England (6 Jan 1988)
* Raumanmeri, Finland (25 Jan 1989)
* Montreal, Canada (6 Dec 1989)

1990s|

* Montreal, Canada (25 Aug 1992)
* Aarhus, Denmark (5 Apr 1994)
* Dunblane, Scotland (13 Mar 1996)
* Sanaa, Yemen (30 March 1997)
* Taber, Canada (28 Apr 1999)
* Valparaíso, Chile (17 Dec 1999)

2000 to present|

| 2000s|

* Rafael Calzada, Argentina (4 Aug 2000)
* Erfurt, Germany (26 Apr 2002)
* Salvador, Brazil (28 Oct 2002)
* Taiúva, Brazil (28 Jan 2003)
* Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand (6 Jun 2003)
* Coburg, Germany (2 Jul 2003)
* Carmen de Patagones, Argentina (28 Sep 2005)
* Montreal, Canada (13 Sep 2006)
* Emsdetten, Germany (20 Nov 2006)
* Jokela, Finland (7 Nov 2007)
* Gurgaon, India (12 Dec 2007)
* Kiryat Moshe, Israel (6 Mar 2008)
* Kauhajoki, Finland (23 Sep 2008)
* Winnenden, Germany (11 Mar 2009)
* Athens, Greece (10 Apr 2009)
* Baku, Azerbaijan (30 Apr 2009)

|

2010s|

* Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (7 Apr 2011)
* Edmonton, Canada (15 Jun 2012)
* Moscow, Russia (3 Feb 2014)
* Barcelona, Spain (20 Apr 2015)
* La Loche, Canada (22 Jan 2016)
* Monterrey, Mexico (18 Jan 2017)
* Goiânia, Brazil (20 Oct 2017)
* Kerch, Russia (17 Oct 2018)
* Suzano, Brazil (13 March 2019)
* Iquique, Chile (16 March 2019)

2020s|

* Torreón, Mexico (10 Jan 2020)
* Kazan, Russia (11 May 2021)
* Perm, Russia (20 Sep 2021)
* Heidelberg, Germany (24 Jan 2022)
* Veshkayma, Russia (26 Apr 2022)
* Erbil, Iraq (28 Jun 2022)
* Quezon City, Philippines (24 July 2022)
* Izhevsk, Russia (26 Sep 2022)
* Nong Bua Lamphu, Thailand (6 Oct 2022)
* Aracruz, Brazil (25 Nov 2022)
* Belgrade, Serbia (3 May 2023)
* Mladenovac and Smederevo, Serbia (4 May 2023)
* Sapopemba, Brazil (23 Oct 2023)
* Bryansk, Russia (7 Dec 2023)
* Prague, Czech Republic (21 Dec 2023)
* Viertola, Finland (2 Apr 2024)
* Sanski Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina (21 Aug 2024)
* Örebro, Sweden (4 Feb 2025)
* Graz, Austria (10 June 2025)

In media|

| Film and
television|

* If.... (1968)
* Panic High School (1978)
* The Class (2007)
* Polytechnique (2009)
* School Killers (2011)

|

Literature|

* A World of Curiosities (2022)

Related terms
and topics|

* Active shooter
* Columbine effect
* List of school attacks in Brazil
* List of school attacks in China
* List of school shootings in Canada
* List of school shootings in Europe
* List of school shootings in Russia
* Mass shooting
* Thoughts and prayers
* School shooting
* School shootings in the United States
* School violence

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