AN award-winning 19-year-old Swedish rapper was shot to death in southern Stockholm in an incident that media reports on Friday said was likely to be gang-related.

The case has shocked the Swedish entertainment world and highlighted what officials said was the urgent need to deal with growing criminal gang activity in the Nordic country.

The rapper Einar was struck by several bullets in the Hammarby Sjostad suburb south of central Stockholm and died on the spot late Thursday, police spokesman Ola Osterling told the Swedish news agency TT.

Police are looking for at least two suspects who allegedly shot the rapper.

The motive of the shooting remains unclear but the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported that the rapper had received several threats recently. It said without providing details that Einar was shot from point-blank range, “execution style.”

According to the Swedish public broadcaster SVT, the rapper’s shooting was gang-related.

Einar, whose real name is Nils Gronberg, was born in Stockholm and rose to fame at the age of 16 when his song “Katten i trakten,” from his debut album “Forsta klass” topped the Swedish charts in 2019.

He won the song of the year award in 2019 and the newcomer of the year award a year later. Einar’s songs have been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times on Spotify.

Swedish tabloid Expressen said that Einar’s songs often dealt with criminality including guns, drugs and violence and the rapper allegedly had strong connections with local criminal gangs. He had been seen hanging out and partying with gang members

According to Expressen, Einar was due to testify in a gang trial next week but Swedish prosecutors had earlier said they didn’t expect him to show up in court.

The rapper himself had earlier been convicted of minor drug offenses, an assault and illegal driving, among other things, SVT said. Sweden has seen a rise in organized crime activity in the past few years and several gang-related shootings have occurred in Stockholm, Goteborg and Malmo.(SD-Agencies)