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   STOCKHOLM — A knife attack that killed two people and wounded   
   eight others in southwestern Finland is being investigated as a   
   terrorist attack apparently aimed at women, Finland’s National   
   Bureau of Investigation said on Saturday.   
      
   The suspect, who was shot after the attack in Turku and   
   hospitalized with a leg wound, is an 18-year-old Moroccan, the   
   bureau said on Twitter. At a news conference on Saturday   
   afternoon, the police said he had been in Finland since last   
   year and was seeking asylum. They said he would be questioned at   
   the hospital as soon as possible.   
      
   Four other suspects, also Moroccan citizens, have been arrested   
   in Turku, and a search warrant was issued for a sixth. A car was   
   also seized as part of the investigation, the police said.   
      
   The knife attack killed two Finnish women. The wounded — five   
   women, two men and a 15-year-old girl — were Finns, an Italian,   
   a Swede and a Briton.   
      
   Crista Granroth, an official with the National Bureau of   
   Investigation, said that it seemed that the attacker had   
   deliberately gone after women, and that the men had been wounded   
   while trying to stop him.   
      
   Prime Minister Juha Sipila said Finland had “feared something   
   like this, but we have been prepared.”   
      
   “We are no longer an island,” Mr. Sipila added.   
      
   The assault in Turku, a city of more than 180,000, began in a   
   main square when a man stabbed a woman, the authorities said.   
   The assailant then ran to another square, where the police   
   apprehended him and took the knife.   
      
   Wali Hashi, a journalist who saw the episode, said in an   
   interview that a group of people chased the knife-wielding man,   
   who was screaming “God is great” in Arabic. The police declined   
   to confirm whether the assailant had been yelling in Arabic.   
      
   Paivi Koivisto, a teacher, said the wounded Italian woman had   
   been pushing a baby in a stroller. “The most important thing was   
   to keep the baby happy,” said Ms. Koivisto, one of several   
   bystanders who tried to help after the attack. The child was   
   unhurt.   
      
   Leena Malkki, a counterterrorism expert and a lecturer at the   
   University of Helsinki, said, “Finland has had attacks of   
   indiscriminate violence, but none on this scale that also have   
   political or religious motives.”   
      
   Friday’s attack, Dr. Malkki said Saturday, should not come as a   
   surprise.   
      
   She said the Finnish Security Intelligence Service, which is   
   participating in the investigation, had warned that ties between   
   people in Finland and foreign terrorist networks had grown   
   stronger in recent years and that radical Islamist propaganda in   
   Finnish had been cropping up on the internet.   
      
   “These are signals that something may be brewing in Finland,”   
   Dr. Malkki said. “But it is not clear how these developments   
   relate to the attack on Friday.”   
      
   The security service released a report in June saying the   
   Islamic State no longer saw Finland as neutral, and posed a   
   threat to the country. The agency has identified about 350   
   people as persons of interest, an increase of 80 percent since   
   2012, it said.   
      
   The security service added that an increasing number of those   
   people had “taken part in an armed conflict, expressed   
   willingness to participate in armed activity, or received   
   terrorist training.”   
      
   The police would not comment on why the investigation into   
   Friday’s attack had changed to involve suspicion of terrorism,   
   other than to say there were indications of “some ideological   
   feelings, background and thoughts.”   
      
   Security was tightened at the airport and at train stations in   
   the capital, Helsinki, about 100 miles to the east. Interior   
   Minister Paula Risikko said the police had increased patrols   
   nationwide.   
      
   https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/19/world/europe/turku-finland-   
   attack.html   
      
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