"Migrant teen gangs" at Stockholm central station?
 

I'm leaving in a few weeks for my first trip to Stockholm and Copenhagen - I'll be travelling alone with my 12 year old son (I'm a woman). We're planning on staying at a hotel right at Stockholm Central Station.

So, today, I'm googling some trip stuff and come across this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ing-girls.html

Now, I try not to be prone to hysteria or overreaction, but is this a concern? I'd chosen a hotel near the station for ease of public transport. Am I going to feel safe? What about at night walking back to the hotel? (Keeping in mind, woman and child traveling alone.) Would it be better to stay in a different part of the city?

ETA: Adding because I need to make it clear that I'm not inclined to believe this. But I just need someone to tell me this is BS. Thanks.

It is BS.

The Daily Mail is like a cross between The National Enquirer and Fox News.

Facts are largely afterthoughts in their stories. If that much.

What Doc said. Tabloids are in the business of scaring people.

What do you mean that it is BS? If you can read Swedish here it is from the state television website.
http://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/sto...ar-pa-knana-nu

One quote from the article cites a cop who says that he or any of his colleagues would never let their children go near T-Centralen.

Note that the area where the gangs primarily roam is probably around "Plattan" which is a below street level pedestrian plaza where you can then go down to the subway (T-centralen). The Daily Mail shows a stock photo of the long distance train waiting area, which is probably not the center of activity.

The area around Stockholm central station is not nice and I would prefer not to stay in a hotel around there. This predates the refugee/ migrant disaster, but the area is a magnet for the lowest forms of humanity.

Generally speaking, the area around central train stations in European cities are not nice. If you go as little as a half mile away then things get better.

T-Centralen is better now than it used to be several years ago. And I stay at hotels within 3-7 minutes walking distance to it. That includes the Nordic Light/Sea hotels, the Sheraton and the Clarion Sign. Perfectly fine by me.

I feel perfectly safe walking around there, even at this time at night. ;)

And every weekend night around the area there, there are lots of teenagers too (solo retuning female partygoers included) with things more or less the same as they were even a decade ago there.

I know lots of Stockholm cops whose kids use T-Centralen daily and even at night during the week and on weekends. Most of them have more "trouble" at their "safe" schools than they do around T-central even as many of them do warn their kids to be street smart.

It's no worse than what I encounter in some of the tourist-utilized areas of Manhattan. And it's safer than what I encounter in some of the better parts of Chicago.

Yes, I ride the L every day in Chicago - through one of the worst neighborhoods in the country. We don't really have big gathering point kind of stations like they have in Europe though. I've definitely had more than a few times on the L here where I've been concerned for my safety and I know Stockholm is much safer. But being far away from home and feeling unsettled seems much more... unsettling?... than being at home unsettled.

For the record, I've been relieved of my phone on the L in Chicago and in London. And broke up a pickpocketing attempt on an elderly man in Paris that ended up with me being surrounded by a group of teens yelling at me and trying to intimidate me. It really sucks and can ruin an otherwise good trip when something like that happens. So I just want to do my best to avoid those situations when possible.

i agree. I stayed in a hotel that was just a block away from the station, and it was perfectly fine. Maybe the area is rundown by Swedish standards, but by North American or British standards, it looks quite nice.

Hi, I am a woman and I live in downtown Stockholm. I would definitely NOT stay anywhere near the Central Station. It's not a nice area, it's a part of town that you don't go unless you have to and there are too many of weird people, drunken Swedes, and foreign beggars. I don't think the chances of something actually happening are that high (are they anywhere?) but staying there for ease of transportation is not a good idea. I'd stay more towards Östermalm.

About the Sheraton that someone mentions, I was almost forced off my bike by a couple of drunken/druged idiots that wanted cash. Fortunately someone saw then and scared them away.

We are staying at the Stockholm Sheraton end of month...Hope that is fine..

Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned my incident then...you'll be fine, just go into town through the street that leads towards the Opera. Don't go north too much. The waterfront is ok now as it's too cold for anyone to hang around there now. The nicer parts of Stockholm are east of Kungsträdgården.

Biking around the Sheraton? Done it many times and the greater risk of harm comes from the licensed Swedish car drivers and from other bicyclists -- although there are those sheltered walking paths there that have a drug/alcohol scene, in some ways better and worse than say around Sergels Torg or Berns and Cafe Opera at night. But just about anyone sticking to walking the main roads (main roads even for cab traffic) is fine when it comes to walking the streets around the Sheraton if they watch out for the wheeled traffic.

I've been in and near Ostermalm and Kungstradgarden when there have been armed, violent incidents, ranging from stabbings to a shooting -- even years before the "migrant crisis". And yet I've never been witness to the aftermath of the same kind of incidents in or around T-Centralen, despite my very frequent use of the T-Centralen at all hours and my frequent staying in hotels, including the Sheraton, within a short walk of the place. And yes, I wander the streets at night from Ostermalm to T-Centralen and back or around all these areas by myself at night. If a person is streetsmart and walks in the better lit and more heavily trafficked areas, it's all more or less fine and a low risk area for ordinary street crime of the violent sort in terms of actual risk levels for an ordinary tourist or even resident. Also, when a person exhibits fear or vulnerability by their behavior, they unfortunately tend to get targeted more. It's why the thief who tried to make me a mark today in Sweden gave up going after me and then went scurrying away to look for a new target or in the hopes that he could get away before he was picked up.

Stockholm is still a pretty safe place when it comes to more typical sorts of violent street crime, and the area around T-Centralen has me more comfortable now even at night than was the case five years ago.

I'm assuming you are not a woman?

I actually changed our reservation to a hotel in Gamla Stan. We will still pass through Central Station, of course, but I'll feel better not staying right in the middle of it. Thanks for your feedback - a woman living in Stockholm was exactly who I needed to hear from. :)

That is a question you are free to ask yourself. I don't really care to discuss my sex/gender situation, whether people are right or wrong in their assumptions about me. ;)

Let's just say I've got no problem with my nearest and dearest Swedish female relatives and friends staying at the hotels which I've mentioned as being used by myself around T-Centralen. And let's just say many of these Swedish females are just fine walking by themselves from these very hotels at night to grab the T-bana from there or to walk back by themselves from there after a night out.