Kristersson will meet with both men on Friday to discuss what role the military could play in helping curb a surge in gang killings.

Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Thursday that he has summoned the head of the armed forces as well as the country’s police chief in a bid to help curb a surge in gang violence that has claimed at least 11 lives in September alone.

Kristersson will meet with both men on Friday to discuss what role the military could play.

It comes after a bloody 12 hours that saw two men killed in separate shootings in Stockholm and a 25-year-old woman killed in a blast at a house in a town north of the capital.

“This is a difficult time for Sweden. A 25-year-old woman went to bed last night on a completely ordinary evening but never got to wake up,” Kristersson said during a rare televised address. “We will hunt the gangs down and we will defeat them.”

Armed forces chief Micael Byden told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter he was prepared to assist police efforts.

“The criminal conflicts in Sweden are a serious threat to the safety and security of the country,” National Police Commissioner Anders Thornberg said in a statement.

“Innocents are murdered and injured. We are doing everything we can within the police and together with others to stop the development.”

Earlier this week, two people were shot dead and two injured when a gunman opened fire at a bar in Sandviken. The 11 shooting deaths this month make September the deadliest month since December 2019.

Kristersson said Sweden had not seen anything like it before and that “no other country in Europe” was experiencing this kind of situation. He noted that children and innocent bystanders were increasingly being caught up in violence across the country.

Last year, more than 60 people died in shootings in Sweden – the highest on record – and this year is set to be the same or worse.

Kristersson’s centre-right minority government which came to power last year, with the support of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats – ending eight years of Social Democrat-led governments in Sweden – has not yet been able to stem the violence

His coalition won the election partly on a promise to stem growing gang violence, and it has launched a series of initiatives, such as greater powers to police and harsher punishment for gun crimes.

It is not clear exactly how the military might get involved in stemming gang violence in Sweden but previous talks suggest soldiers may take over certain policing duties to allow officers to free up resources for crime-fighting.

Kristersson said Thursday that he would push ahead with more surveillance, harsher penalties for breaking gun laws, stronger deportation powers, and stop and search zones. “Everything is on the table,” he said.