Finland attack: 1 killed in Turku stabbing spree

At least one person has been killed and seven others hospitalized in a stabbing attack in the Finnish city of Turku on Friday, state broadcaster YLE reported.

Three people are now undergoing surgery, YLE reports, citing hospital sources. It did not say whether any attackers were among the injured.

Police earlier said they had shot and arrested a suspect after the stabbing in the southwestern city and that they were searching for other possible perpetrators.

The suspect was shot in the leg after the attack, said police, who have warned the public to move away from the city center.

Finnish media published photographs of the attack site, and one showed a body covered with a white sheet. Another by YLE shows a small crowd around someone apparently bleeding on a cobblestone road.

YLE reported that the attack occurred at two marketplaces close to each other in the city center — Kauppatori, known in English as Central Market Square, as well as the Puutori Market Square. Several ambulances are in the area.

Police said on Twitter they were also patrolling a shopping mall.

Turku lies around 140 kilometers (around 85 miles) west of the capital, Helsinki.

‘There was blood everywhere’

Kent Svensson, 44, from Sweden who was in Turku said he witnessed a man with “a huge white knife” running and stabbing people in his path.

“It was really horrible. We were sitting on a terrace just next to the square and this woman just screamed like hell and this guy was standing in front of her with a huge knife just stabbing people,” he said.

“There was blood everywhere,” he said, adding that he saw a victim lying on the ground.

Finnish police in the Eastern Uusimaa region on Twitter warned citizens to be on alert near the Helsinki-Vantaan airport and train stations.

Exit mobile version