Finnish police on Saturday said the stabbing attack in Turku on Friday was an act of terror, Reuters reported. The attacker, who stabbed two people to death, was shot in the leg by police personnel, a statement said. The suspect and two people are undergoing treatment at a hospital.
The accused has been identified as an 18-year-old Moroccan. Eight people including two Swedes and one Italian were injured during the attack. The two deceased victims were Finnish citizens.
“The act had been investigated as murder, but during the night we received additional information which indicates that the criminal offences are now terrorist killings,” a statement by the National Bureau of Investigation said.
Security officials have increased raids and patrols in the region. “There was a raid and we have now six suspects in custody, the main suspect and five others,” detective superintendent Markus Laine of the National Bureau of investigation told AFP. “We are investigating the role of these five other people but we are not sure yet if they had anything to do with [the attack].”
National flags are being flown at half-mast across the Nordic country, BBC reported.
Similar attacks
Several such stabbing incidents have taken place across Europe in the last few months. On July 28, one person was killed and several others sustained injuries after a man had stabbed people in a supermarket in Germany’s Hamburg city. In June, a knife-wielding man had attacked a bar full of people after a van had rammed into people in London’s Borough area killing at least eight people.
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