Finland stabbings: Turku killings being investigated as terror attack, police say
Suspect has been identified as an 18-year-old Moroccan
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Your support makes all the difference.A series of stabbings in Finland that left two people dead is being treated as a terror attack, police have said.
The National Bureau of Investigation, which is heading the investigation, said on Saturday that those killed on Friday were Finnish citizens, while the wounded include a Briton, one Italian national and two Swedes.
It said: “Due to information received during the night, the Turku stabbings are now being investigated as murders with terrorist intent.”
Police said they had identified the suspect, an 18-year-old Moroccan citizen, but did not release his name. He arrived in the country in 2016 as an asylum seeker, they said.
The suspected attacker killed two people and wounded eight in the city of Turku, about 90 miles west of the capital, Helsinki, on Friday afternoon, before police shot him in the leg and arrested him. He apparently targeted women.
Four other Moroccan citizens have been arrested over potential links to the attack.
Local media said the police raided an apartment in the eastern Turku suburb of Varissuo, which is home to a large immigrant population and located about 7km from the market square where the attack took place.
Authorities placed the city centre on lockdown and have reinforced security nationwide. People were allowed to return a few hours after the attack.
Witnesses reported seeing a man wielding a large knife and hearing gunshots and screams at the city centre’s Puutori market square. Some said they saw a lifeless body lying on the ground.
One of those stabbed was reported to be a woman pushing a buggy.
Flags were at half mast on Saturday across the Nordic country where violent crime is relatively rare.
Still, the Security Intelligence Service raised the terrorism threat level in June to “elevated” from “low”, saying it had become aware of terrorism-related plans in Finland.
The confirmation of motive means the Turku attack was the second terrorist assault in Europe in two days, following the massacre in Barcelona on Thursday evening and the linked incident in Cambrils a few hours later.
Additional reporting by agencies
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