By Johan Ahlander and Simon Johnson
OREBRO, Sweden (Reuters) -A gunman who killed 11 people, including himself, at an adult education centre in central Sweden may have been a student at the school, police said on Thursday, as they described chaotic scenes after the country's deadliest mass shooting as being like an "inferno".
Police believe the suspected killer - identified by a Reuters source and Swedish media as Rickard Andersson, a 35-year-old unemployed recluse - acted alone in Tuesday's attack on an educational campus in Orebro, about 200 km (125 miles) west of Stockholm.
Swedish police found three rifles near the body of the gunman, who they believe took his own life.
"The police who arrived at the scene have spoken about what could be described as an inferno ... dead people and injured people, screams and smoke," Orebro police chief Lars Wiren said.
Police found 10 empty bullet magazines and a "large amount" of unused ammunition. Wiren said police arrived on the scene five minutes after the alarm was raised and believed the attacker then began directing his fire towards them.
"After approximately one hour, the acute operation was over when the suspected perpetrator was found dead with several weapons near him," Wiren said, adding that police had not opened fire during the incident.
The police officers who first responded to the attack ran into the shooter almost immediately, and after realising they were coming under fire sought cover outside the building, losing sight of the assailant, a police spokesperson said.
A heavily armed response team, better equipped to cope with the smoke, arrived about 10 minutes after the alarm was raised and entered the building, but still struggled to relocate the attacker across the 17,000 square-metre facility.
Police said the smoke was not caused by fire but by "some sort of pyrotechnics". Several police had to seek medical attention for inhaling smoke.
'NO CLEAR MOTIVE'
Swedish authorities have said there was no evidence so far that the shooter, who was not previously known to police, had "ideological motives".
"We don't see a clear motive, but we're looking for it," police investigations leader Anna Bergqvist said. "It's a very difficult question, but it's really important for all of us to be able to present a motive as soon as possible."
Police said in a statement that there was information indicating that he had been a student at the school. "That is something we will have to look closer at," Bergqvist told the press conference.
Police have not confirmed the name of the suspect and are awaiting genetic, dental and fingerprint data before making a conclusive identification.
The Risbergska adult education centre, where the attack took place, offers adult courses and Swedish language classes for immigrants.
While police have yet to disclose the identities of the victims, Syria's embassy in Stockholm wrote on Facebook (NASDAQ:META) that Syrian citizens were among the dead, without specifying how many. Bosnia's foreign ministry said separately its embassy had been informed by relatives that one Bosnian citizen had been killed and another wounded in the attack.
Sweden has a high level of gun ownership by European standards, mainly linked to hunting, though it is much lower than in the United States. A wave of gang crime in recent years has also highlighted the high incidence of illegal weapons.
BARRICADED IN CLASSROOMS
While Sweden has suffered a wave of gun violence in recent years related to gang crime, the nation has been shocked by the brutality of Tuesday's crime.
Survivors barricaded themselves in classrooms and hid under beds to escape the killer. When they were released by police, they spoke of seeing pools of blood where victims had been shot. Police are still working to formally identify the dead.
Six people were admitted to a local hospital in the wake of the attack, five of whom required surgery for gunshot wounds. All were now in stable condition though two remained in intensive care, regional authorities said in a statement.
Many students in Sweden's adult school system are immigrants seeking qualifications to help them find jobs in the Nordic country, while also learning Swedish.
The Campus Risbergska school has around 2,700 pupils, around 800 of whom were enrolled in Swedish for Immigrants courses, according to information provided by the local authority.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who called the attack a "dark day" for Sweden, was holding a regular gathering of the government on Thursday and has invited all the opposition parties to attend in a show of political unity.
Unlike in many countries, access to schools in Sweden is generally not tightly controlled. Speaking to Swedish Radio, School Minister Lotta Edholm, said that should change.