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Swedes rally for Anna Lindh
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (CNN) -- Tens of thousands of Swedes gathered in outrage on Friday at the murder of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh. Lindh, 46, was stabbed several times inside an upmarket Stockholm department store as she shopped Wednesday. She died early Thursday as a result of wounds to her abdomen. Authorities investigating the killing say they have recovered a knife and jacket from near the scene of the stabbing. They also said DNA tests were under way to try to determine who killed one of the nation's most popular politicians. Police say the shop might have images of the killer on a video surveillance camera. Up to 50,000 people, many carrying red roses, gathered in Stockholm for Sweden's biggest political demonstration since the Vietnam War. "We lost her, but our anger over the loss must not paralyze us," Prime Minister Goran Persson said, urging the crowd to turn out to vote in Sunday's referendum on whether to ditch the crown for the euro. Later on Friday, Persson told CNN: "She combined the responsibility for family and for a professional career ... she was respected in all political parties and she also had a very very good reputation abroad. We have lost one of the most loved and respected politicans. "We don't spare any effort to catch the murderer. It was a crime not only against a single person, it was also a crime against the open society, against democracy." Lindh, 46, one of Sweden's most popular politicians tipped as a successor to Persson, led the "Yes" campaign with him on joining the European Union's single currency but most polls point to a "No" result. Politicians have suspended the campaign. Stockholm police commissioner Leif Jennekvist told Reuters that surveillance cameras in the N.K. department store where mother-of-two Lindh was stabbed might have images of the killer. "He seems to fit very well the descriptions we have compiled," Jennekvist told a news conference and said that prospects of catching him were "very good."
Outside the N.K. department store, hundreds of mourners have lined the streets, placing wreaths, mementos and red roses -- the symbol of the Social Democratic Party to which Lindh belonged -- as a shrine to the foreign minister. Lindh did not have a bodyguard with her at the time of the attack. Swedish politicians typically do not travel with bodyguards in their home country. (Full story) Witnesses described seeing a man wearing a green, military-style jacket stab the foreign minister as she shopped at the N.K. department store. N.K. is short for Nordiska Kompaniet. The fashionable department store is just blocks from the foreign ministry building in the city center. The stabbing happened not far from where Prime Minister Olof Palme was gunned down in an unsolved 1986 killing. Lindh will be buried next Friday at a private funeral. Muslims in Sweden devoted Friday prayers to Lindh, the first time a non-Muslim was so honored in Sweden. -- CNN Producer Kim Norgaard in Stockholm contributed to this report
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