More than 50,000 people gathered in central Stockholm yesterday in a moving ceremony to remember Ms Anna Lindh, the Swedish Foreign Minister, who was killed on Wednesday, writes Derek Scally in Stockholm
Stockholm police were last night searching for a key witness to the still motiveless stabbing in a city department store as contradictory opinion polls ahead of tomorrow's referendum on the euro make the final result almost too close to call.
"She was extraordinarily good at being ordinary and at the same time she was Sweden's face to the world," said Mr Göran Persson, the Swedish Prime Minister, to a protest rally in Stockholm's central square, Sergels Torg.
He called the late Minister "a modern, full-time working woman" and "a role model for many young women" for her ability to combine a successful career and a happy family life.
Police say that store security camera tapes show a man in a hooded jacket whom they suspect later attacked Ms Lindh, a 46 year-old mother of two.
"You see a lot of people moving and among that group of people we are screening one particularly interesting person who has caught our eye," said a police spokesman.
The alleged attacker had acne, dark blonde shoulder-length hair and was wearing a blue or beige hooded coat, according to police.
They are also looking for a woman aged between 50 and 60, who was wearing a red coat and who shouted "Catch him!" after the attacker stabbed Ms Lindh on Wednesday afternoon.
Police said the man fled the NK department store in central Stockholm, throwing away the knife which is now being examined by police, and fled into a nearby shopping arcade before vanishing. Authorities say they will not release the tapes to the media and will only show the footage to witnesses who come forward.
Police searched homeless shelters yesterday and released without charge a 32-year-old drug addict yesterday but said they were interviewing up to 15 people.
It emerged yesterday that Ms Lindh had received, but not read, threatening post and e-mails in the last weeks of the referendum campaign.
One e-mail, received after Ms Lindh wrote a pro-euro newspaper article, called her a "power-hungry bitch sitting in the lap of big business" and threatened her and her children.
Opinion was divided yesterday over what effect the killing will have on tomorrow's euro referendum.
"The death of Anna Lindh may decide the euro referendum," predicted the influential Aftonbladet newspaper.
That opinion was borne out by a poll showing a huge jump in support for the Yes camp and opinion on joining the euro split evenly 50-50.
The poll by the Skop Institute was conducted after Ms Lindh died and had a sample of 792 voters. However, another survey suggested an increase in No voters to 50 per cent and support for Yes dropping to 39 per cent.
"There is great potential for a sympathy vote that will turn this one," said Prof Bo Bjurulf, a Swedish political expert, on national television. "Obviously if it's politically motivated the sympathy vote would be stronger."
Politicians called off their bitter euro debate after Ms Lindh's death.
Instead of a television debate this evening, as is usual on the eve of polling, party leaders will each make short televised speeches urging Swedes to go out and vote.
Stockholm authorities hit back at criticism yesterday that they didn't react swiftly enough to the stabbing. City police published a telephone log which showed they were at the crime scene eight minutes after the first emergency call.
They also defended the decision not to shut down the underground train system, saying they did not know who they were looking for.
There were more than 1,000 calls to the special police hotline in the first 24 hours of operation, police said, overwhelming the police telephone system.