The ten-day, tenth-annual EuroPride festival got off to a rocky, violent start in Stockholm this weekend.

A male gay couple were stabbed and robbed during Stockholm's EuroPride festival in what police described Monday as a hate crime.

"Two homosexual men were stopped by three men and were asked directions. The three asked them about their sexuality and then stole their mobile phones and money. One of them was then stabbed in the stomach," Stockholm police spokesperson Towe Haegg said.

The attack late on Sunday "is considered a hate crime", she said, adding police believed the perpetrators had targeted the couple, aged 25 to 30, because they were gay.

EuroPride organizer Jonah Nylund described the attack as "serious." Indeed.