suicide bomber who targeted Christmas shoppers in Sweden carried three sets of bombs and is believed to have had accomplices as the attack was "well planned".
Chief prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand said al Abdaly had bombs strapped to his body, more in a backpack and also carried something that looked like a pressure-cooker.
"If it had all exploded at the same time it could have caused very serious damage," he said.
Mr Lindstrand said al Abdaly was the registered owner of the car that exploded in a busy shopping street in Stockholm at around 5pm.
The suicide bombing is an indication that a nation often thought of as open, liberal, benign and now multicultural, is not safe from the problems of the wider world and may have to change its response to the terrorist threat.Sky News foreign affairs editor Tim Marshall
An email threat sent to the Swedish news agency TT and Sweden's intelligence agency before the blasts has also been linked to al Abdaly's mobile phone.
Mr Lindstrand described the attack as "very well planned" except for the fact the car bomb went off too early.
"He was well-equipped with bomb material, so I guess it isn't a too daring guess to say he was on his way to a place where there were as many people as possible, maybe the central station, maybe Ahlens (a department store)," he said.
Bomber Taimour Abdulwahab al Abdaly
Al Abdaly, 29, was born in the Middle East and became a Swedish citizen in 1992.Although he apparently had harboured radical ideas for some time, Mr Lindstrand said he was completely unknown to Swedish intelligence before the attack.
Swedish police believe the attack was carried out by a single bomber but are assuming "he worked with several people".
"According to our experience, there are usually many people involved in such situations," Mr Lindstrand said
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