Man suspected of Finland knife attack questioned by police

Finnish police have carried out raids and questioned the main suspect of the knife attack in Turku on Friday that killed two people.

Police earlier said that the 18-year-old Moroccan asylum seeker was refusing to answer questions but it has now emerged that they have been able to question him.

Officers also searched premises in the city as part of the investigation into Finland’s first terror attack.

“The suspect’s profile is similar to that of several other recent radical Islamist terror attacks that have taken place in Europe,” director Antti Pelttari from the Finnish Security Intelligence Service told a news conference.

Meanwhile, police are trying to piece together clues to discover what led the man to go on a knife rampage.

Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation said it had organised a reconstruction in Turku’s market square and raided addresses in the city’s Runosmaki district.

“The investigation is proceeding and the picture is getting more accurate,” said Detective Chief Inspector Crista Granroth, who is leading the investigation.

Two women were killed in the attack and six other women were wounded, along with two men, in the city’s main market square. Police say the attacker was targeting women specifically.

His attack was halted when police shot him in the leg and he was taken to hospital under police guard.

A minute’s silence was observed in the market square yesterday for the victims of the rampage.