DNA breakthrough in Lindh killer hunt

The motive for murdering Lindh remains a mystery

DNA traces have been recovered from the baseball hat worn by the killer of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, Swedish police say.

The breakthrough came five days after Lindh was fatally stabbed in a Stockholm department store.

The DNA does not match any samples on the Swedish national database, a police spokesman said.

The knife attack came only days before Sunday's euro referendum - when voters rejected membership of the single currency by 56% to 42%.

We have received about a hundred different possible names, but we have not identified him Stina Wessling Police spokeswoman

But the killer's motive remains a mystery, and it is not clear whether the timing was a coincidence.

The murder weapon, together with the baseball cap which has yielded the key DNA evidence, were left behind by the knife attacker as he fled the scene.

Police say they are still trying to establish whether a man caught on CCTV at the store is a suspect or a witness.

The white man, with long hair and sideburns, was seen walking around the NK shop's leisurewear and sports department shortly before the attack. He was wearing a baseball cap and a Nike sweatshirt.

"We have received about a hundred different possible names, but we have not identified him," police spokeswoman Stina Wessling told Sweden's TT news agency on Monday.

The stream of leads has increased a little, but not as much as we had hoped Mats Nylen Police spokesman

Police also said publication of the pictures had generated fewer calls than expected.

"The stream of leads has increased a little, but not as much as we had hoped," Stockholm police spokesman Mats Nylen said, quoted by AFP news agency.

A police spokeswoman said later that they were "getting closer" to identifying the man.

Police say the CCTV pictures have been shown to some witnesses of the crime, but the outcome has not been disclosed.

More than 2,000 possible leads are being followed up.

Police are still trying to identify a man caught on CCTV cameras

The murder weapon, a craft knife with a steel blade and red plastic handle, is being sent abroad to the UK or Germany for tests.

"They have the very latest when it comes to DNA technology and can perform analyses on minimal cell samples. We don't have that technology yet," Olof Egerstedt, head of Sweden's central forensic lab SKL, told the TT agency.

A spokeswoman for the Forensic Science Services, a UK Government agency in Birmingham, confirmed that it was helping Swedish police with the murder case, but would not say whether it was being sent the knife.

There were also reports that unidentified blood was found at the scene, giving police a possible further source of DNA material.

Uncertainty

Lindh's murder sparked national grief and created uncertainty ahead of Sunday's referendum. It had been thought that the killing of the popular pro-euro minister could boost the Yes vote, but voters rejected the currency as predicted in months of opinion polls.

Lindh died early on Thursday after hours of surgery. Initial statements on her condition had said her injuries were not life-threatening, but doctors discovered some internal organs had been damaged in the repeated stabbing.

Police have questioned and released several people, and have also been making inquiries among Stockholm's homeless population, as well as working through a list of other possible suspects.