A man stabbed eight people Friday in Finland's western city of Turku, killing two of them, before police shot him in the thigh and detained him, police said. Authorities were looking for more potential suspects in the attack.
A suspect — who police said was "a youngish man with a foreign background" — was being treated in the city's main hospital but was in police custody. Security was being stepped up across the Nordic country, Interior Minister Paula Risikko told reporters at a news conference.
People was emergency services working in Turku Market Square in Turku Finland on Friday, Aug. 18, 2017. (Facebook via AP)
The man's identity and nationality were being investigated. Police said he is likely to have acted alone though it was not possible to completely rule out that other people were involved.
Police did not give any information on the two people killed or the conditions of those wounded in downtown Turku, 170 kilometers (106 miles) west of Helsinki, the capital.
Finland's top police chief, Seppo Kolehmainen, said it was too early to link the attack to international terrorism.
"Nothing is known about the motives ... or what precisely has happened in Turku," he said.
Turku Market Square on Friday, Aug. 18, 2017, with a yellow ambulance on the corner of the square (behind red car). (Lehtikuva via AP)
It was also not known if Friday's attack was linked to a decision in June by Finland's security agency to raise its threat assessment to the second level of a four-step scale. The Finnish Security
Intelligence Service says the country's "stronger profile within the radical Islamist propaganda" led to the change. It said the Nordic country is now considered part of the coalition against the Islamic State group.
The Ilta-Sanomat tabloid said six people were injured in the attack, one man and five women, and that a woman with stroller had been attacked by a man with a large knife. Finnish broadcaster YLE said several people were seen lying on the ground in Puutori Square after the attack.
Armed Finnish policemen on guard at the Helsinki airport on Friday, Aug. 18, 2017, as Finnish authorities announced they will raise readiness levels after an incident in Turku Finland. (Lehtikuva via AP)
Witness Laura Laine told YLE she was about 20 meters (65 feet) away as the attack took place.
"We heard a young woman screaming. We saw a man on the square and a knife glittered. He was waving it in the air. I understood that he had stabbed someone," Laine was quoted as saying.
Finland's government was closely monitoring the police investigation into the attack, Prime Minister Juha Sipila said.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto arrived at Turku later Friday and condemned the attack as "a shocking and cowardly act."
"This attack touches us all deeply," said Niinisto, adding that the country's political leaders and security officials were doing their utmost "so that all Finns are able to feel safe."
For now, people were avoiding downtown Turku.
"Police have told us not to go to the city center, so we are in this coffee shop a few blocks away," said Vanessa Deggins, an American studying business at one of Turku's three universities, told The Associated Press. She didn't witness the attack, but heard emergency sirens going past.
"This is a safe country by American standards. I have gone home alone at 2-3 a.m. ... I feel safe," she said.
HELSINKI (AP) — A Chinese container ship remains the focus of an investigation into what caused the damage last year to a Baltic Sea gas pipeline between NATO members Finland and Estonia, Finnish authorities said Thursday.
It has been more than six months since substantial, human-made damage that caused a major drop in pressure was first detected in the Balticconnector pipeline in Finnish economic waters on Oct. 8. Gas system operators in Finland and Estonia — Gasgrid Finland and Elering — were forced to shut it down, disconnecting a crucial link between the Nordic and Baltic gas markets for several months.
The pipeline, which runs across the Gulf of Finland between the Finnish town of Inkoo and the Estonian port of Paldiski, was reopened this week after multimillion-euro repair work.
The National Bureau of Investigation, a branch of the Finnish police, said Thursday that it still believes that an anchor of the Hong Kong-flagged cargo vessel Newnew Polar Bear ship, which was on its way to St. Petersburg, Russia, was dislodged and caused the damage detected in Balticconnector.
The “investigation has progressed, and there has been cooperation with the Chinese authorities probing the case,” Detective Supt. Risto Lohi, NBI’s head of the investigation, told The Associated Press.
“The main line of investigation has remained unchanged — the cargo ship Newnew Polar Bear and its anchor are considered to be related to the pipeline damage,” Lohi said.
Finnish investigators haven't said whether they believe the damage allegedly caused by the Chinese vessel was done intentionally or whether it was caused by incompetent seafaring, as suggested by some experts.
Finnish maritime authorities said at the time of the incident, they failed to establish radio contact with Newnew Polar Bear's captain despite several attempts.
Last year, NBI said that an initial inquiry by investigators and experts found a trail of about 1½ to four meters (five to 13 feet) on the seabed that was seen to lead to the point of damage in the gas pipeline. That trail is believed to have been caused by the heavy six-ton anchor of Newnew Polar Bear, which was later retrieved from the seabed by the Finnish Navy.
“We’re probably talking about months before final conclusions," pending further information from technical studies and data from NBI’s international partners, Lohi said.
Sauli Niinistö, a former president of Finland, spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the Balticconnector case in a video call in January, but no details of the talks have been disclosed.
Telecom cables connecting Finland and Estonia, as well as Sweden and Estonia, were also damaged at the same time as the Balticconnector pipeline. Finnish and Estonian authorities believe both incidents may be connected to the Chinese vessel.
Janne Grönlund, senior vice president at Gasgrid Finland, said that Balticconnector was reopened for commercial operation early Monday after gas started flowing from Finland to Estonia. A smaller amount of gas was also flowing in the other direction.
“I’m happy to say that everything has proceeded as planned" since the pipeline’s relaunch, he said.
More than a dozen different organizations and companies were engaged in the repairs, which were completed in just over six months. Repairing such submarine infrastructure usually takes one to two years, Estonia’s Elering said.
Grönlund said the total cost of the pipeline repair work, performed entirely by remote-controlled equipment at a depth of 60 meters (around 200 feet), is estimated at around 35 million euros ($38 million).
It remains open as to who will pick up the bill.
Last year, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo initiated discussions with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on getting financing from the European Union to repair the pipeline. The EU covered 75% of Balticconnector’s original construction cost of around 300 million euros.
Following damage to the gas pipeline and data cables, NATO has stepped up its patrols of the Baltic Sea. The alliance has sent minehunters, maritime patrol aircraft, and drones to the region to secure the area and detect suspicious movement near its critical undersea infrastructure.
Finland, an EU nation of 5.6 million that neighbors Russia, joined NATO in April 2023 after decades of military nonalignment.
FILE - In this picture provided by Swedish Coast Guard, a leak from Nord Stream 2 is seen, on Sept. 28, 2022. A Chinese container ship remains to be the prime suspect in causing damage last year to a Baltic Sea gas pipeline running between NATO members Finland and Estonia which was reopened this week after multimillion-euro repair work, (Swedish Coast Guard via AP, File)
