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   HELSINKI/TURKU, Finland (Reuters) - A Moroccan man who was   
   arrested for killing two women in a knife rampage was an asylum   
   seeker who appeared to have targeted women in Finland's first   
   terrorism-related attack, police and a Red Cross official said   
   on Saturday.   
      
   The 18-year-old suspect, arrested in the city of Turku following   
   Friday's attack in which eight other people - six of them women -   
    were wounded, arrived in Finland last year, police said. Police   
   shot the suspect in the leg before his arrest.   
      
   Police also arrested four other Moroccan men over possible links   
   to him and issued an international arrest warrant for a sixth   
   Moroccan, they said.   
      
   Finnish broadcaster MTV, citing an unnamed source, said the main   
   suspect had been denied asylum in Finland, although police said   
   only he had been "part of the asylum process".   
      
   The manager of the Red Cross reception center in Turku, where   
   flags flew at half-mast on Saturday, told Reuters the suspect   
   was an asylum seeker. "I cannot comment on the application's   
   outcome," Heimo Nurmi said.   
      
   He said police visited the center on Friday and had detained   
   several people. "The arrests were non-violent," he added.   
      
   It was not clear if the attack was in any way linked to the   
   suspect's asylum application.   
      
   The case marks the first suspected terror attack in Finland,   
   where violent crime is relatively rare. Police said they were   
   investigating possible links to Thursday's deadly van attack in   
   the Spanish city of Barcelona.   
      
   "The suspect's profile is similar to that of several other   
   recent radical Islamist terror attacks that have taken place in   
   Europe," Director Antti Pelttari from the Finnish Security   
   Intelligence Service told a news conference.   
      
   Both of those killed in the Turku attack, and six of the eight   
   who were wounded, were women, the police said. The two who died   
   were Finns, and an Italian and two Swedish citizens were among   
   the injured.   
      
   "It seems that the suspect chose women as his targets, because   
   the men who were wounded were injured when they tried to help,   
   or prevent the attacks," said Crista Granroth from the National   
   Bureau of Investigation.   
      
   "The act was cowardly ... we have been afraid of this and we   
   have prepared for this. We are not an island anymore, the whole   
   of Europe is affected," Prime Minister Juha Sipila said.   
      
   SCREAMING   
      
   The stabbing spree occurred on Friday afternoon in the main   
   market place in Turku, on the southwest coast of the country,   
   160 kilometers from Helsinki.   
      
   "First thing we heard was a young woman, screaming like crazy. I   
   thought it's just kids having fun ... but then people started to   
   move around and I saw a man with a knife in his hand, stabbing a   
   woman," said Laura Laine, who was sitting in a cafe.   
      
   "Then a person ran toward us shouting 'He has a knife', and   
   everybody from the terrace ran inside. Next, a woman came in to   
   the cafe. She was crying hysterically, down on her knees, saying   
   someone's neck has been slashed open."   
      
   Four of the wounded were still in hospital, three of them in   
   intensive care, while the other injured persons would be sent   
   home on Saturday, the hospital said.   
      
   Turku's Iraqi, Syrian and Islamic community condemned the   
   attacks and organized a rally of solidarity in the city's main   
   square, but decided to cancel it due to security concerns.   
      
   "Finns and immigrants, and people from different religions, have   
   had very good relations in Turku... We are shocked, but I don't   
   see this changing that," said Abdirahman Mohamed, Chairman of   
   the Islamic community of Turku.   
      
   He said the Moroccan suspects were not familiar to him or to the   
   Islamic community in town, which has around 2,000 members.   
      
   TENSIONS   
      
   An Anti-immigration mood has been on the rise in Finland since   
   it received some 32,500 asylum seekers during the migration   
   crisis in 2015.   
      
   Tensions simmered on Saturday Turku as the anti-immigration   
   "Finland First" movement held a rally but it was met by counter-   
   demonstrators brandishing signs saying "No room for racism".   
      
   In Helsinki, about 200 people gathered in the rain to protest   
   against the construction of a mosque and Muslim immigration to   
   Finland in a rally planned by the Finnish far-right group the   
   Finnish Defence League (FDL) before the attack.   
      
   Some members of the nationalist Finns party, which was kicked   
   out of the government in June for their new hard-line anti-   
   immigration leadership, blamed the government for what they said   
   was too loose an immigration policy.   
      
   "The asylum system is the primary road for illegal immigration,   
   used also by the terrorists. Harmful immigration can be   
   controlled only by reducing Finland's attractiveness, or by   
   border controls," said Finns party lawmaker Ville Tavio.   
      
   The government has already tightened immigration policies in the   
   past few years, along with other Nordic states.   
      
   http://www.reuters.com/article/us-finland-stabbing-idUSKCN1AZ07S   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)