Finland terror knife attacker targeted women

AN 18-year-old Moroccan man who went on a knife rampage, killing two people and wounding eight, appeared to have targeted women, Finnish police say.

The suspect was arrested after the attack on Friday after being shot in the leg by police in the city of Turku. He had arrived in Finland last year, police said. They later arrested four other Moroccan men over possible links to him and had issued an international arrest warrant for a sixth Moroccan national.

Finnish broadcaster MTV, citing an unnamed source, said the main suspect had been denied asylum in Finland. The police said he had been “part of the asylum process”.

The case marks the first suspected terror attack in Finland, where violent crime is relatively rare. “The suspect’s profile is similar to that of several other recent radical Islamist terror attacks in Europe,” director Antti Pelttari from the Finnish Security Intelligence Service told a news conference.

Police said they were investigating possible links to Thursday’s deadly van attack in the Spanish city of Barcelona.

Both of those killed in the Turku attack, and six of the eight who were wounded, were women, the police said. The two who died were Finns, and an Italian and two Swedish citizens were among the injured.

“It seems that the suspect chose women as his targets, because the men who were wounded were injured when they tried to help, or prevent the attacks,” said Crista Granroth from the National Bureau of Investigation.