A police office talks to customers outside the Ikea store in Vasteras, Sweden, Monday Aug. 10, 2015, after three people were injured in a knife attack at the store. (Peter Kruger/TT via AP) SWEDEN OUT
Two fatally stabbed in IKEA
00:45 - Source: TV 4 Sweden

Story highlights

NEW: One of those arrested was injured, according to police

Those killed were a 55-year-old woman and her 28-year-old son

Sweden is seen as welcoming toward asylum-seekers

CNN  — 

One day after two people were stabbed to death inside a Swedish IKEA, police in that Scandinavian country arrested two men in connection with the crime – both of them asylyum-seekers from Eritrea.

Swedish police said both men lived in a facility for asylum-seekers in a Swedish town called Arboga, which is about 35 miles (55 kilometers) southeast of where the fatal stabbings took place in Vasteras.

The victims were a 55-year-old woman and her 28-year-old son, according to police.

A third person – who police spokesman Per Agren said was one of the two men arrested – was severely injured.

Sweden: nearly 40,000 asylum decisions last year

With its high per-capita income, Sweden is a popular destination for asylum-seekers. It helps, too, that it is a relatively welcoming one.

The fatal stabbings took place in Vasteras, about 65 miles northwest of Stockholm.

According to Eurostat, the statistical arm of the European Union, in 2014 Sweden made initial decisions on nearly 40,000 asylum applications – the third-highest number of any country in the EU.

More than three-quarters of those decisions were approvals, Eurostat reported.

The stabbings took place Monday in Vasteras, which is about 65 miles northwest of the capital, Stockholm.