An Uzbek asylum seeker who mowed down shoppers in a truck claimed at his trial Tuesday that he killed them in the service of the Islamic State group - but his accusers insisted he acted alone. Rakhmat Akilov, 40, is on trial on terrorism charges for the rampage on a busy shopping street in Stockholm, in which he killed five people and injured 10 more in April last year.

He has admitted carrying out the attack and claims to have had the blessing of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, but prosecutors do not believe that he had direct help.

The method of the attack resembled other vehicle assaults in Europe in 2016, including Nice in France and Berlin - but unlike those attacks, the Stockholm killings were never claimed by IS.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2018