Police hunt Lindh killer

The murder has profoundly shocked the people of Sweden

Swedish police have released a description of the man who stabbed to death Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.

Hundreds of officers have been searching the city for a heavily-built man in his 30s, about 1.8 metres (five feet 11 inches) tall, with long dark-blond hair and bad skin.

They believe the killer, who attacked Lindh in a Stockholm department store on Wednesday, is a repeat offender who may be psychologically disturbed.

Prime Minister Goran Persson is to lead a demonstration against violence in the city on Friday.

He has announced that a referendum on whether to join the European single currency will go ahead as planned on Sunday.

Poll confusion

"I want everyone to go vote in Sunday's referendum... Violence will not prevail," Mr Persson said.

This just isn't done in Sweden - attacking a 46-year-old mother Stockholm resident Anna Lindh: Your tributes Death overshadows vote

The BBC's Tim Franks in Stockholm says that although the vote will decide on a hugely important issue there is an air of distaste towards normal politics at the moment.

The two latest opinion polls give widely differing indications of the result.

One released on Friday by the Skop institute showed the Yes camp reaching level pegging with teh No camp, which earlier polls have placed consistently in the lead.

However, a poll by the market research company Sifo issued shortly afterwards suggested that support for the euro had fallen to 38%.

The motive for the killing - in which Lindh sustained knife injuries to the chest, stomach and arms - is not known.

Lindh had been tipped as a future prime minister

The knife used and clothes worn by the killer have been found, and attempts to identify his fingerprints - from the knife, and from an escalator handrail - are under way.

One 32-year-old man was taken in for questioning on Thursday but was later released and ruled out of the inquiry.

Stockholm police chief Leif Jennekvist, quoted by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, said the killer was not a novice.

"The killer has done this kind of thing before - you don't begin your criminal career with this kind of crime," he said.

Police spokesman Bjoern Pihlblad said: "We have a number of people that we are investigating, we have not singled out a suspect."

Nation shocked

The murder has stirred memories of the 1986 assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, who was shot in the back as he walked home from the cinema with his wife.

His killer was never found and police are under huge pressure to succeed this time.

Sweden's wide open society

Lindh's death has shocked a nation that has long prided itself on the accessibility of its politicians; like many officials, she did not use a bodyguard.

Correspondents say the government hopes the rally on Friday will allow people to vent their shock and dismay at the attack, which has extinguished Sweden's brightest political star.

Floral tributes have been piling up, to the height of one metre (three feet), at the Stockholm department store where Lindh was stabbed.

Hundreds of people, many weeping, queued up to sign books of condolence and light candles.

Lindh, who had severe internal bleeding with liver and stomach injuries, died after more than 10 hours of surgery.

An active politician since her early twenties, Lindh's meteoric rise in the ruling Social Democratic Party, and her solid reputation led her to be widely tipped as a possible successor to Mr Persson.