A HELENSBURGH man caught up in the aftermath of Friday's terror attack in Stockholm says he still considers the Swedish capital a safe place to live despite the incident.

Neil Calder, 29, was at the city's university, a ten-minute walk away from the city centre, when a hijacked truck was deliberately driven through crowds in a busy street and into the front of a department store.

Four people were killed in the attack and at least 15 pedestrians injured, nine of them seriously.

Speaking to the Advertiser as news of the attack began to spread around the world, Mr Calder, a former pupil at Lomond School, said: “There's a lot of hustling and bustling and all public transport has been closed down by the police.

“People are definitely a little bit worried.”

Mr Calder, who grew up in Helensburgh and is studying a European masters degree in nuclear energy at Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology, said the incident followed some unrest both in the capital city – where a riot erupted in the predominantly immigrant suburb of Rinkeby at the end of February – and in the southern city of Malmo, near the border with Denmark.

“Unrest has been brewing somewhat,” he continued, “but as a resident here for years, it still feels like a very safe place to live.

“Unfortunately what this attack shows is that you don't necessarily need to have traditional weapons to cause violence in a crowded area.

“You can't make everywhere safe from everything.

“I just hope I have the same attitude as most people. The worrying thing is that terror attacks like this can cause a very aggressive response in some people and create deeper divisions in society – which is what the people behind the attacks want.”

Rakhmat Akilov, a 39-year-old man from Uzbekistan, was arrested near the city on Friday evening on suspicion of carrying out the attack.

After a court hearing in the city on Tuesday, Mr Akilov's lawyer said his client had admitted a terrorist crime and accepted he would be detained

Swedish police have said Mr Akilov was known to the security services and had expressed sympathy for the so-called Islamic State.