Finnish police investigating a mass knife attack in the city of Turku Friday afternoon have said they consider the event a possible terror attack and have made a number of further arrests at private homes and an asylum centre.
An 18-year-old Moroccan male asylum seeker was arrested Friday after having been shot in the leg by a police officer. He is being held on suspicion of murder and a possible terrorist intent.
The suspected killer arrived in Finland last year and was “involved in the asylum seeking process” and lived in an asylum centre in the city of Turku, according to reporting from the police press conference by Finnish broadcaster YLE.
Finnish police released more details about the investigation and incident Saturday morning, including that the two deceased victims are female Finnish citizens aged 15 and 67. Among the eight injured victims are one British, two Swedish, and one Italian citizen.
In addition to the arrest of the suspected killer, a further four individuals have been arrested at private homes and an asylum centre in Finland, and they are reported to be Moroccan citizens. An Interpol arrest warrant has been issued for a fifth wanted man.
Police said the attacker apparently chose his victims at random and when he failed to obey a verbal order from a police officer, he was shot and incapacitated.
A small country of five and a half million inhabitants, Finland is home to very few migrants and the majority of those are Swedish, Russian, and Estonian. While the country took small numbers of refugees during the migrant crisis many left the nation voluntarily, citing the cold weather and boredom as reasons for no longer wishing to remain in the state.
The investigation into the Moroccan suspected terrorist in Finland comes as Spanish police investigate a large, predominantly Moroccan and North African terror cell that launched a deadly attack on Thursday in Barcelona, killing 14.
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