The Death Of Swedish Openness?

A shocked Sweden may have to reconsider its open and approachable attitude to politics after the death of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh followeing a frenzied knife attack.

Lindh, 46, died Thursday less than a day after being attacked as she shopped without bodyguards in Stockholm's upscale NK (Nordiska Kompaniet) department store. Authorities said she was was stabbed in the arms, chest and stomach by an unidentified man who ran from the store, just blocks from parliament. Police said they were searching for a man wearing a camouflage jacket. The knife was recovered at the store, AP reported.

Initial reports said her injuries were serious but not life-threatening; some even indicated that her condition had improved although she remained in a "critical" condition. Surgeons at Stockholm's Karolinska Hospital struggled for nine hours to repair damage to her liver and abdomen, but shortly after 9am Thursday Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson appeared on television to announce her death.

"I have received with sorrow information that Sweden's Foreign Minister Anna Lindh died this morning at 5.29 a.m. of her wounds," Persson told a news conference.

"It feels strange and it's difficult to understand," Persson said, adding that the Scandinavian country's tradition of openness was damaged by the killing. "The attack against her also hurt the society we've built up and in which we want to live in."

Although the murder comes just ahead of Sunday's national referendum on whether to adopt the single European currency, authorities said they did not think Wednesday's attack was politically motivated. Lindh was an outspoken campaigner for Sweden's Yes campaign. Officials said Sunday's vote will go ahead despite national shock over the killing.

Lindh, one of Sweden's most admired politicians and No. 3 in the government, had been mentioned as a possible successor to Persson.

For many Swedes, her murder brings to mind the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme in Stockholm in 1986. His attacker has never been caught.