Airsoft gun leads to major police operation in southern Sweden

A Malmö resident sparked a police operation after neighbours spotted someone shooting a gun from a balcony – only for officers to discover it was an Airsoft gun.

Several police patrols and heavily armed regional units were called out to the property in the Kirseberg suburb when reports of a weapon being fired came in.

"When we checked the apartment and the people inside it, it proved to be an Airsoft gun," Maya Forstenius from Malmö police told news agency TT.

No arrests were made, but officers stayed behind to assess whether a report would be filed.

"Based on the information they gathered we will make an assessment over whether a report is filed and which crime category is used," Forstenius noted.

Earlier this summer two young men in Stockholm caused a police special operations unit to be called out when they were spotted waving replicas of hand guns and an automatic rifle.

The guns were destroyed on the spot by their unhappy father under supervision of the police.