Finland attacker had sought asylum

TURKU: Finnish police said on Saturday that a Moroccan asylum seeker targeted women in a stabbing spree that left two people dead, in what is being investigated as a terrorist attack.

Police shot and wounded the knife-wielding suspect on Friday, arresting him minutes after a stabbing rampage at a market square in Turku.

The man went after women specifically, killing two, police said. Eight other people were injured, among them six women.

Investigators had initially probed the stabbings as murders, “but in light of further information received during the night, the offences now include murders with terrorist intent and their attempts,” police said.

Police identified the suspect as an 18-year-old Moroccan citizen who arrived in Finland in 2016 and who had sought asylum. His name was not disclosed and his motive was not yet known.

“We tried to talk with the attacker in hospital but he didn’t want to speak,” Granroth said.

Media reports said his asylum request had been rejected, but police did not confirm this, saying only that his case had been processed by migration authorities.

Police said they were examining whether the suspect had any link to the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for twin terror attacks in Spain on Thursday and early Friday.

Police were also probing whether there was a link to the vehicle attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils that killed 14 people and wounded around 100 others.