MALMÖ — A 15-year-old girl has died after being struck by a car on Friday afternoon near Skånes Universitetssjukhus in Malmö, and police have arrested a man in his 40s on suspicion of gross negligence causing another person’s death and gross reckless driving. Two people were taken to hospital after the crash.
The girl was hit at a pedestrian crossing at Södervärn in front of many witnesses, when a driver in a car at high speed struck her. The scene drew a large police response, with Patric Fors saying, “Vi är på plats med flertal resurser och dokumenterar olycksplatsen.”
The teenager was a pupil at Europaportens skolor in Malmö, where grief was immediate and the school’s crisis team was activated as soon as staff learned what had happened. “Det är väldigt tungt. Vi försöker stödja alla som behöver det,” said Magdalena Fredriksson, who described a school reeling from the sudden loss.
Europaportens skolor did not wait for Monday. The school opened again on Friday evening so no one would have to be alone after the news, and it sent information to all parents and guardians about how to talk to children about what had happened. Over the weekend, people left flowers and candles at Södervärn, while the school kept opening its doors at different times for crisis support.
By Monday morning, the response had become a collective school ritual. Staff gathered first, students were met by their class teachers, and the school planned to hold a minute of silence and lower the flag to half-mast together. Fredriksson said the scale of the response showed how many lives the girl had touched: “Vi var uppåt hundra personer. Kurator, skolsköterska och präst var på plats, liksom två personer från Malmö stads kristeam.”
The school’s message was also a warning about what the crash meant for children and teenagers who saw it and now have to live with it. Fredriksson said, “Elever i den här åldern ska egentligen inte behöva vara med om en sådan här sak. Där får vi som skola stötta så mycket vi bara kan.” Police have also urged people not to share disturbing videos from the incident. For Europaportens skolor, the immediate task is no longer explaining what happened. It is carrying its students through the first week after a death that happened in full view of the city, and making sure the girl is not remembered only as a statistic on a crash report.
