News: At least three dead as truck drives into Stockholm crowd

At least three people have been killed and eight seriously injured after a truck crashed into a department store in central Stockholm. Swedish PM Stefan Lofven said it was likely a terror attack.

The attack took place at 2:55 p.m. local time (12.55 UTC) on Friday. 

Swedish police said that no arrests have yet been made, after earlier reports of at least one arrest. 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The head of Swedish police Dan Eliasson told a press conference in Stockholm later on Friday that the police are looking at several leads.

Police showed a picture of a man wearing a grey hoodie and said they were looking for him. They did not rule out the possibility that other attackers were involved.

A hijacked beertruck reportedly rammed into the upscale Ahlens department store on the busy Drottninggatan street, a major pedestrianized shopping area in the center of the city and above the city's main railway station. 

A spokeswoman for transport company Spendrups told the French news agency AFP that the truck "had been stolen during a delivery to a restaurant."

The area was cordoned off and large numbers of police and emergency services were at the scene. All subway traffic was also closed down in the city and the parliament is in lockdown.

The police have told people to stay away from the city center after reports of shots being fired at two other locations in the city.

"There are deaths, and many injured," Nina Odermalm Schei, a spokeswoman for Swedish intelligence agency Sapo, told AFP, without giving a precise figure.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven makes a statement in central Stockholm, Sweden April 7.

The Swedish intelligence agency said the death toll will likely rise.

"I saw at least three dead, but probably more," Swedish radio reporter Martin Svenningsen said.

Broadcaster SVT said at least five people were killed in the attack, but police could not confirm those reports.

People on the scene were swift to post video footage on social media.

"A vehicle has injured people on Drottninggatan," police spokeswoman Towe Hagg told the news agency Reuters.

"Police received a call from SOS Alarm that a person in a vehicle has injured other people on Drottninggatan,"

A witness told the news agency Reuters that he had seen a number of body-like forms covered by blankets at the scene of the incident.

"I turned around and saw a big truck coming towards me. It swerved from side to side. It didn't look out of control, it was trying to hit people," Glen Foran, an Australian tourist told Reuters.

Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf said in a brief statement that the royal family had noted the attack "with dismay" and sent condolences to the families of the victims and injured. "We follow developments but as of now our thoughts go to the victims and their families," he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said her government's "thoughts are with the people in Stockholm, the injured, the relatives, first responders and police." 

A view of the site where the truck drove into a crowd and into a department store in Stockholm.

Germany's Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and his French colleague Jean-Marc Ayrault also expressed shock at the attack.

"That Sweden is now a victim of such a terrorist attack has also deeply shocked us," the two foreign ministers said at a joint press conference in Mali. 

Germany and France experienced deadly truck attacks in 2016 that were claimed by the self-styled "Islamic State" (IS) group.