Planned refugee camp in Sweden torched in suspected arson attack

A planned refugee camp in Sweden has been torched in a suspected arson attack.

Firefighters were called to the blaze in Eskilstuna, west of Stockholm, at around 11:00pm last night, but the building was almost totally destroyed.

Swedish authorities had wanted to house around 60 people in the former holiday camp.

It is the latest in a series of violent incidents against asylum seekers, just one day earlier a man with a sword killed two people in a racist attack at a Swedish school with many immigrant pupils.

Sweden, which is a country of 9.8 million, is likely to receive up to 190,000 asylum applications this year.

These figures make it one of the highest proportions of refugees per capita.