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Attacker in clown mask stabs man in Sweden | Attacker in clown mask stabs man in Sweden |
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A man in southern Sweden has been stabbed by an unidentified attacker wearing a clown mask, as a wave of hysteria about sightings of “scary clowns” sweeps the United States and several European countries including the UK. | |
“A man born in 1997 was stabbed in the shoulder by an unknown person who ran away,” police in Halland county in southern Sweden said on their website. | |
The incident late on Thursday came after two people in clown costumes threatened to kill a woman in the centre of Sweden on Wednesday. | |
“She was extremely frightened,” a police spokesman told the Aftonbladet newspaper, adding that there was nothing funny about the craze. | “She was extremely frightened,” a police spokesman told the Aftonbladet newspaper, adding that there was nothing funny about the craze. |
Also on Wednesday, a group of men in clown outfits surrounded four 10-year-old children and threatened them with what turned out to be fake chainsaws. | Also on Wednesday, a group of men in clown outfits surrounded four 10-year-old children and threatened them with what turned out to be fake chainsaws. |
The interior minister, Anders Ygeman, has called for calm, telling the TT news agency: “We don’t want to see a situation where a person gets into real trouble because someone, perhaps half-joking, puts on a clown mask.” | |
In the US, a social media-fuelled frenzy led the McDonald’s hamburger chain to announce this week it would scale back the use of its smiley-faced Ronald McDonald. | In the US, a social media-fuelled frenzy led the McDonald’s hamburger chain to announce this week it would scale back the use of its smiley-faced Ronald McDonald. |
The craze has also spread to Britain, where police forces have been called to several incidents involving pranksters dressed as clowns jumping out and trying to frighten people. | |
Police in Britain and the US fear the craze will spike in the run-up to Halloween. Even the White House has weighed in and warned that authorities were taking such incidents seriously. | |
The phenomenon has also hit the Netherlands, where two people have been seen wearing masks and brandishing weapons. | |
France had a similar craze in 2014, which according to sociologist Robert Bartholomew was “quite intense and violent”, leading to the arrest or jailing of a dozen teenagers. | |
“Clowns can be seen as creepy because you can’t read a clown’s face, and 80% of communication is non-verbal,” he argued. “If a person is wearing makeup or a mask, it is hard to know whether they are friend or foe.” |