"The Swedish Incident" sounds like the title to a lost Sex and the City episode, but today in real life Manhattan, the "incident" was four Scandinavian police officers breaking up a fight on their way to a Broadway show.
According to reports Thursday from DNA Info and Gothamist, Makrus Åsberg, Samuel Kvarzell, Eric Jansberger, and Erik Näslund were on a 6 train on their way to see Les Misérables when a fight broke out between two passengers. When the conductor held the train at the Bleecker Street station and asked over the intercom if there were any police officers on the train, the quartet sprang into action.
“We thought maybe someone needed help,” Kvarzell, 25, told the New York Post. After the strapping young tourists separated the two men, Åsberg stayed with the victim while the other three restrained his attacker. It's just a coincidence that the men were all cops and not just concerned bystanders.
As video taken by a witness shows, the altercation was more action-packed than most subway rides, but less exciting than what an average person might hope an interaction with four Swedish men in their 20s would be.
For their part, the friends downplayed their involvement in the "Swedish Incident," as an NYPD spokesman called it. There have been no updates about what the Swedes' plans are, whether they need tour guides, or their favorite Les Misérables song.
"We came here for vacation; we’ve been here one day,” Åsberg told the Post. “We’re no heroes, just tourists.”
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