New Delhi, April 29 -- A shootout at a hair salon in the Swedish city of Uppsala on Tuesday evening (April 29) left three people dead, local police confirmed. The attack, staged by a masked assailant who fled the scene on a scooter, has sparked fresh concerns about rising gang violence in the country.

"We have three people confirmed dead, but we have not confirmed their identities yet," police spokesman Magnus Jansson Klarin told AFP. "We received reports of a masked person on an electric scooter, we are looking into those reports," he added.

The shooting occurred just a day before Uppsala's Valborg spring festival, an annual celebration that draws over 100,000 visitors. Authorities worked to secure the area around the crime scene and r...