Finland attack ‘likely terror,’ authorities say

HELSINKI — The knife attack in western Finland that left two people dead and seven others wounded is “a likely terror act,” Finland’s intelligence agency said yesterday, while police said Europol was investigating if it had any ties to deadly vehicle attacks in Spain.

The suspect — an 18-year-old Moroccan asylum-seeker — was shot and wounded in the thigh by police during his rampage Friday in the city of Turku. He was hospitalized under guard — still in intensive care yesterday — and is being investigated for murder with possible terrorist intent, police said.

His name has not been released, but investigators say he came to Finland in early 2016 seeking asylum.

“It’s likely at this moment that we’re dealing with a terror attack,” intelligence agency investigator Pekka Hiltunen said, adding that it was investigating the suspect’s connections to the Islamic State group, since IS “has previously encouraged this kind of behavior.”

The agency however did not change the country’s threat assessment following the Friday attack.

Crista Granroth of the National Bureau of Investigation said the suspect’s attack was very focused.

“We think the attacker was going after women,” Granroth said.

The suspect has yet to be questioned, while four others, also Moroccans living in Turku who know him, were detained on suspicion of involvement. An international arrest warrant had been issued for a sixth person, police said, declining to elaborate.

The two dead were Finnish women, while the seven wounded included four Finns, and one Italian, one Briton and one Swedish man. Two of the wounded were still in intensive care. The youngest victim was 15, the oldest 67, police said.

Prime Minister Juha Sipila told a news conference that if confirmed as an act of terrorism, “it’s the first time Finland has encountered such a terror act.”

“Finland is not an island,” he said. “We have feared something like this, but we have been prepared.”