Stockholm (Sunatimes) - Swedish police Sunday confirmed that two explosions in central Stockholm that killed one person, a wound be suicide bomber, and injured two more, causing panic among Christmas shoppers, were a terrorist attack.

Police said last night's explosions were the result of "terror crimes". "We are investigating this as terror crimes according to Swedish law. We are still investigating the case. In this situation, we have not raised the security [threat] level," police spokesman Anders Thornberg told the reporters.

The incident began when a car burst into flames in the city centre, followed by explosions from within the car which the police said were caused by gas canisters.

Another explosion, in which the man died, followed about 300m away. Two people were wounded in that blast.

'Most worrying attempt at terrorist attack in crowded part of central Stockholm Failed - but could have been truly catastrophic,' Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in a message on his Twitter, which was also shown on his blog.

Investigations are underway to see if the two incidents were linked, Mr Lindgren said. Several hours after the blast, the man's body was still lying on the pavement, covered with a white sheet.

Police vans had cordoned off several streets around the body and the car had been towed away.

Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper, the largest news paper, reported that the man was carrying pipe bombs, as well as a backpack full of nails, although this has not been confirmed by the authorities.

An eyewitness interviewed by the Dagens Nyheter DN-Newspaper said something appeared to have blown up against the man's abdomen.

"He had no injuries to his face or the rest of his body and the shops around him were not damaged," the paper said.

Sweden, which has so far not had major terrorist attacks of the type suffered by the UK in July 2005 and Spain in March 2004, raised its terror alert level from low to elevated in October because of a "shift in activities" among Swedish-based groups.

However, the security services said at the time that the threat remained low compared with that in other European countries and that no attack was imminent.

The Sweden news agency Tidning Telegram-TT reported that it found a threatening message from unknown person minutes before the explosions.

"Our actions will speak for themselves," said the email warning. "Now your children, daughters and sisters will die like our brothers and sisters and children are dying." Read the message which was in Swedish and arabig

The sender referred to Swedish silence about the troops in Afghanistan and the controversial caricature by Vilks that showed Prophet Muhammad peace be up on him with the body of a dog. "As long as you don't end your war against Islam and the humiliation against the prophet and with your stupid support to Lars Vilks the pig."

About 500 Swedish troops are stationed in Afghanistan, primarily in the north of the country.

Elements in Somalia linked to al-Qaida have been recruiting young people from Sweden to fight in the war in the horn of Africa, the security services have said.

The Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, last month outlined plans to pull Swedish combat troops out of Afghanistan between 2012 and 2014 and maintain a largely civilian support presence afterwards.

"Our ambition is that Sweden's presence in Afghanistan should shift from a combative role to a more supportive role," he said.

The troop plans have been the subject of negotiations between Reinfeldt's centre-right government, which has ruled as a minority since September, and opposition parties whose support has been needed for a bill to make the strategy a reality.

Source: Sunatimes