Two dead and six hurt in Finland stabbings

FINNISH authorities stepped up security around the country after a stabbing attack left two people dead and half a dozen wounded in a western city.

One suspect was arrested after being shot by armed police and officers launched a search for other possible perpetrators after the attack in the centre of Turku yesterday.

Investigators said it was too early to attribute the attack to international terrorism or to link it to the terrorist attacks in Spain the previous day. “Nothing is known about the motives… or what precisely has happened in Turku,” Seppo Kolehmainen, Finland’s top police chief, told the country’s YLE broadcaster.

The suspect in custody has not been named. Police said Turku was “safe” again, suggesting their manhunt for other attackers had been called off.

Armed officers reinforced security at Helsinki Airport and train stations after the attack.

About half a dozen people were seen lying on the ground in the centre of Turku, a city of 180,000 in the southwest of the country, as the attack unfolded at 4pm local time. Witnesses reported seeing a woman with a stroller being attacked by a man with a knife.

Petri Virolainen, the director of Turku University Hospital said: “I can confirm that eight people are in our hospital.” Two were later confirmed dead, with the rest said to be stable.

Finland’s Security Intelligence Service said it had no indication that individuals in Finland were linked to the Barcelona attack and that the country’s threat assessment would remain unchanged, at an “elevated” level.