This is a list of disasters and tragic events in modern Sweden sorted by death toll.
100 or more
Disaster
Location
Deaths
Date
Notes
Pandemic
Sweden-wide
225,000–500,000
1350
The Black Death's first wave in Sweden killed 30-40% to two-thirds of the then Swedish population.[1]
Famine
Sweden-wide
100,000
1770s
Famine due to crop failure.
Pandemic
Sweden-wide
37,573 (probably more)
1918–1920
In Sweden, 37,573 people died from the Spanish flu pandemic according to official statistics.[2]
Pandemic
Sweden-wide
37,000
1834–1874
Between 1834 and 1874, 37,000 people died in Sweden of cholera.[3]
Pandemic
Sweden-wide
23,563
2020, January 24 – present
The COVID-19 pandemic is reported to have killed 23,563 people in Sweden as of February 11, 2023
Famine
Sweden-wide
10,000
1867–1869
During the famine of 1867–69 which hit Finland and northern Sweden, poor harvests and uneven distribution of food led to the poor population, mainly in the North, died in their thousands.
Up to 2,000 people (men, women and children) were killed in Ronneby Bloodbath when Swedish troops entered Ronneby and executed people after a couple of Swedish soldiers have been assaulted and hanged there for a time before.[6]
The warship Kronan was sunk during the battle of Öland. The sinking was caused by the ship capsized in a too sharp turn. During the capsizing, the gunpowder storeroom ignited and the main part of the bow was blown away on the starboard side.
The warship Mars was sunk during the first battle of Öland after gunpowder storeroom was ignited. A total of 800 men, of which 300 were enemy crews, died in the ensuing explosion.[8]
A sudden and very intense snowstorms caused roughly a hundred deaths, mainly in northeastern Götaland and Svealand. The incident is called The Blizzard Tuesday Yrväderstisdagen.[10]
The warship Vasa sank on her maiden voyage after capsizing. The water began to gush in through the open gun hatches and the ship sank. At least 30 men were killed, but perhaps as many as 50.[21]
A 18-year-old worker poisoned the elderly in Malmö Östra Hospital with corrosive cleaning agents Gevisol and Ivisol. 27 patients were affected in what has been known as Malmö Östra hospital murders.[22]
A heavily laden ferry departed on his way home from the traditional spring market in Askersund. When the ferry reached halfway a line burst and an ox fell into the water. Several people hurried to try to pull up the animal. Oblique load meant that the ferry capsized and sank. 25 people drowned.[24]
The passenger ship Per Brahe sank in a storm on Lake Vättern outside Hästholmen, probably caused by the cargo had shifted. All on board were killed, including artist John Bauer and his family.[25]
Linjeflyg Flight 618 crashed in a parking lot at Ängsullsvägen in Kälvesta in western Stockholm during an approach to Bromma Airport. 22 people were killed, including table tennis world champion Hans Alsér.[26]
Fire
Börstil Parish
22
1882, May 31
A fire in Börstil poorhouse on the night of 31 May 1882 in Börstil Parish outside Östhammar after being struck by lightning and the building was ignited. 22 people died.[27]
The steamboat Bengt Sture was sunk by the Soviet submarine SC 406. 14 Swedes and one Norwegian disappeared.[33] The submarine picked up seven Swedish crewmen. According to a Russian historian, they were shot by the NKVD security police in a prison camp, something that has not been officially confirmed by the Russians.[34]
A powerless tram rolled backwards down Aschebergsgatan in Gothenburg without being able to brake. It derailed at Vasaplatsen and hit the waiting people at a stop. 13 people died and 29 were injured.[38]
An explosion occurred at AB Bofors Nobelkrut in Björkborn, Karlskoga Municipality after a fire started in the TNT casting foundry. 11 people were killed and around 100 buildings were completely destroyed and as many were damaged in an area of about 15 hectares.[43]
Svenska Aero's plane on its way to Stockholm had just taken off from Karlstad Airport when it reared up and fell to the ground. All ten on board were killed.[37]
The police officer Tore Hedin killed a man in the village of Tjörnarp. A year later, during a nighttime murder tour he killed another nine people before drowning himself in Lake Bosarpa.[45]
Off Bergkvara in southern Kalmarsund, a group of ten young people aged 14–21 years drowned during a sailing trip from Garpen lighthouse to Bergkvara harbor. The boat was surprised by a gust and was overturned, with all ten ended up in the water and drowned.[46]
During an exercise west of Gotland, one of the boilers in fire room number four exploded on the coastal defence ship HSwMS Gustav V. Eight men were killed immediately, and the two men on the deck and passed the boiler's air intake were severely injured. These were taken by a minesweeper to Visby Hospital, where they later died.[47]
Ten men were killed on Hjvb 282 Libanon when a naval mine exploded outside Gräsgård in Öland. A defused mine was lifted on board one of the boats, but had not noticed that a second mine was hanging on.[49]
Ten men were killed in a naval mine blast at the glass factory in Västervik after a fisherman found the mine floating in the water 400–500 meters outside Cape Gränsö and brought it to shore.[50]
Significant incidents resulting in fewer than 10 deaths
An accident occurred at the second artillery piece in which nine people died. It was at a technical shooting when the pendulum pressure arose, probably due to great of a charge that blew up the mechanism and the artillery piece's rear parts.[52]
In conjunction with a major fishing competition on Lake Lower Vättern in Skinnskatteberg, a small boat capsized in heavy weather and eight people drowned.[54]
The patrol boat Hjvb 232 Isbjörn capsized and sank in a storm on the road to Hävringe lighthouse. The pilot boat from Hävringe went out to the site and was able to save three of the ten occupants.[53]
Shortly after 10.00 pm on 25 July 2009, a fire destroyed an apartment on the ground floor of Kuddbygränd in Rinkeby. A mother and her five daughters were killed immediately. Later a relative of the family died in the hospital. The fire had started in a lamp.[58]
During work in an open lowering channel, an explosion occurred at the building of Grundfors Power Station, killing seven people and injuring three.[60]
The Reserve Officer Course practiced mine-laying and demining at Karlberg Palace when some mines were triggered. Six cadets from Bohuslän Regiment died.[61]
At AB Expressdynamit's facilities in Grängesberg a building exploded and the six people inside, six workers, were killed. The accident was considered to be caused by a metal that accidentally came with the pressing of a dynamite mass of 160 kg, wherein by the heat of friction generated, the dynamite was ignited.[62]
Six men were killed aboard the coastal defence ship HSwMS Manligheten in the Gothenburg archipelago during the salvage of a German paravane. Another 14 men received varying injuries.[63]
2017 Stockholm truck attack. An Uzbek asylum seeker hijacked a truck and deliberately drove it into crowds of people in central Stockholm killing 5 and seriously wounding 14.[65]
Five people were killed when a two-story building belonging to Skånska vinegar factory in Perstorp exploded. In the building there were machines for grinding down wood for use in plastic pulp.[66]
Five people (including two children) died in an arson attack when an explosive charge placed in the printing press of the communist newspaper Norrskensflamman exploded.[67]
In the Von Sydow murders, the 23-year-old law student Fredrik von Sydow kills his father Hjalmar von Sydow in Norr Mälarstrand in Stockholm and two of his father's maidservants. Later that evening in Uppsala, he shoot his young wife and then himself.[69]
Four children and a 27-year-old woman died in a house fire in Staffanstorp. According to the Swedish National Forensics Centre, the fire was probably caused by an overheated battery in a laptop lying on a sofa.[71][72]
50-year-old taxi owner Valdemar Näslund murdered his wife and three children with an ax in his apartment in Östersund. The motive was that he embezzled money from a taxi owner's cash register.[75]
Tommy Zethraeus shot dead four and injured six people outside the entrance to the nightclub Sturecompagniet in Stockholm after having been in disarray with the nightclub bouncers earlier in the evening.[76]
The patrol boat Hjvb 383 Ocean was towing two German motor boats outside Hunnebostrand. A hawser broke and three men drowned when a motor boats drifted onto a skerry.[53]
A 49-year-old man and his two children, a 15-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl were murdered in their home by 21-year-old Ragnar Nilsson who was half-brother with the two children.[87][88]
At the Army's distribution center for fuel an explosion occurred that claimed three people's lives of a total of eleven people who worked at the facility.[90]
Two Swedish men were killed and one was injured in the 2023 Brussels shooting when the 45-year old Abdesalem Lassoued opened fire on Swedish football supporters who were on their way to a football match in the King Baudouin Stadium during the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifiers. The victims were 60-year-old Patrick Lundström and 70-year-old Kent Persson. Another man in his 70s was injured.[94][95]
The sinking of the MS Estonia in bad weather during its journey from Tallinn to Stockholm with 989 people on board resulted in the death of 852 people. Of 552 Swedes on board, 501 died.[97]
RMS Titanic steamed on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England towards New York City, United States and hit an iceberg and damaged its hull. She sankt within three hours. 1,517 people died. 123 Swedes were on board – 89 of them died.[98]
Early on the morning of Sunday, 27 November 1983, Avianca Flight 011 crashed on approach to Madrid–Barajas Airport. On board were 192 people. 11 people survived the crash. Among those killed were 27 Scandinavians, thereof 22 Swedes. Most Scandinavian citizens were young people on their way to South America to bring home adopted children.[99]
During the North Sea flood of 1953, Aspö of Stockholm was reported missing on 2 February after getting the deck load flushed overboard and a leaking in the front of the ship. Aspö disappeared without a trace with 22 crew.[100]
A transport aircraft of the type Bristol 170 Freighter had been chartered by the Swedish Air Force to carry home 21 flight officers and flight engineers, who had supplied bombers sold to the Ethiopian government. On a stage from Catania to Rome, the plane came for unknown reason off course and crashed against Monte Carro. On board were 21 passengers in addition to the three members of the crew. The accident killed 21 people, including one who survived the impact but died later from his injuries.[101]
The Linate Airport disaster occurred when a SAS McDonnell Douglas MD-87 would take-off from Linate Airport but collided with a German-registered Cessna aircraft with four people on board. 114 people on board the SAS plane, including 20 Swedes, were killed along with four people in a baggage handling building that was hit by the SAS plane.[102]
Sterling Airways Flight 296 crashed during a flight from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Copenhagen, Denmark, with a stopover in Dubai. After two hours' flight, the plane crashed into a mountain ridge at about 550 meters. All 112 on board were killed, including 20 Swedes.[103][104]
Måbødalen bus accident occurred when a bus with children and parents from Kvarnbacka School in Kista crashed against a rock wall in Måbødalen, 180 km from Bergen. 16 people died, including 12 children, and 19 were injured.[106]
12 Swedish schoolchildren and 2 Finnish girls on a winter sports holiday were killed when the bus they were traveling in was swept away in an avalanche.[108]
The Swedish tanker Avanti was steaming from New Guinea to Iwakuni in southern Japan when it was split in two parts in the South China Sea. 32 people were rescued and 8 died.[109]
The 16,000 ton MT Johannishus of Trelleborg collided with a Pananma-registered ship in the English Channel and caught fire. Eighteen crewmen, including six Swedes, were killed in the fire.[30]
Four Swedish youths died when they were on the road in minibus between Patong in Phuket and Koh Tao in Thailand and collided with a truck that came over on the wrong side of the road.[116]
A bomb explodes aboard Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish village of Lockerbie. 270 people died, including the three Swedes Bernt Carlsson, Siv Ulla Engström and Elisabeth Svensson-Mulroy.[117]
The 2016 Brussels bombings was three coordinated nail bombings that occurred in Belgium: two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one at Maalbeek/Maelbeek metro station in Brussels. Two Swedish women died in the attacks.[118]
The September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against civilians and military buildings. One Swede, who worked in one of the Twin Towers, was killed.[119]
^Åman, Margareta (1990). Spanska sjukan: den svenska epidemin 1918–1920 och dess internationella bakgrund [Spanish influenza : the Swedish epidemic, 1918–1920, and its international background]. Studia historica Upsaliensia, 0081-6531 ; 160 (in Swedish). Uppsala: Univ. pp. 66–67. ISBN91-554-2587-9.
^Anderson, Karl Gustav (1977). Hansakatastrofen: en dokumentär skildring av den största olyckan i svensk sjöfarts historia och dess följdverkningar [Hansa disaster: a documentary portrait of the greatest disaster in the Swedish maritime history and its consequences]. Visby: Gotlands Allehanda. p. 11.
^Smitterberg, Björn (24 November 2004). "Hansa – torpederad den 24 november 1944" [Hansa – torpedoed 24 November 1944.] (in Swedish). Gotland.net. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
^Engström, Annika; Atterstam, Inger (26 October 2008). "Vi glömmer aldrig" [We will never forget]. Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 5 January 2011.
^Johnsson, Fredrik (15 November 2009). "Sjukhusmorden" [The hospital murders]. P3 Dokumentär (in Swedish). Sveriges Radio. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
^Lindorm, Erik (1979). Gustaf V och hans tid: en bokfilm. 1928–1938 [Gustaf V and his time: a book film. 1928–1938] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand. p. 55. ISBN91-46-13379-8.
^"Kanalbåten Per Brahes förlisning" [The sinking of the canal boat Per Brahe] (in Swedish). Jönköping County Museum. Archived from the original on 17 September 2014. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
^Lundgren, Stefan (2 May 2011). "Branden i Börstils fattighus 1882" [The fire in Börstil poorhouse 1882] (in Swedish). Upplandia.se. Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
^Räddningstjänsten Östra Blekinge (7 June 2011). "Karlskrona Räddningskår" [Karlskrona Rescue Corps] (in Swedish). Karlskrona.se. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
^Svenska Dagbladets årsbok [Swedish Dagbladet Yearbook] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Svenska Dagbladet. 1925. p. 21.
^Insulander, Per; Ohlsson, Curt S. (2001). Pansarskepp: [från John Ericsson till Gustaf V] [Coastal defence ships: [John Ericsson to Gustaf V]]. Forum navales skriftserie, 1650–1837 ; 2 (in Swedish) (1:a ed.). Falkenberg: Marinlitteratur. p. 218. ISBN91-973187-2-8.
^Wemmenhög, Ingemar (March 2011). "Pjäser som "kommit hem"" [Artillery pieces that has "come home"] (PDF). Borg-Skum (in Swedish) (1). Kamratföreningen Vapenbrödernas (Amfibieregementets) tidskrift: 12. Archived from the original(PDF) on 26 September 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
^Brandsjö, Kaare (1988). I brandmannaminne: berättelser om bränder, katastrofer, räddningsinsatser förr och nu [The fire living memory: stories of fires, disasters, emergency response from now and then] (in Swedish). Hudiksvall: Winberg i samarbete med Svenska brandförsvarsfören. p. 17. ISBN91-87004-15-1.
^Becker, Melker (2008-11-02). "Basareholmen". Hemliga svenska rum. Season 1. Episode 11 (in Swedish). SVT. SVT1.