Finland stabbings: Moroccan teenager admits to killing two women in Turku but denies terror link

A Moroccan asylum seeker has admitted to stabbing two women to death in the Finnish city of Turku.

But Abderrahman Mechkah denied murder and said there was no terror motive to the attack, which also left eight people injured.

A regional court in Turku earlier ruled that the 18-year-old should be remanded in custody after the stabbing last Friday.

​Mechkah appeared in court via video link from hospital. He was shot in the leg by police following the stabbings in the main market place in Turku, on Finland's southwest coast, 100 miles from Helsinki.

He is being held on suspicion of terrorist crimes. Three alleged associates were named as accomplices in assisting and planning the attack. They have denied any involvement.

The court said they were suspected of "participation in the murders and attempted murders, committed with terrorist intent."

Police investigators are exploring possible links to last week's extremist attacks in Spain in which most of the perpetrators and suspects are reported to be Moroccans.

A fifth Moroccan, who had been under arrest since Friday, was released, the court said.

It also emerged that Mechkah had his application for asylum rejected before the attack.

Lawyer Kaarle Gummerus told Reuters: “[My client] admits manslaughter and injuries ... But what the investigator has brought up this far may not be enough to classify this as a terrorist crime.”

Mechkah, who had been living in a Red Cross immigrant reception centre in Turku since coming to Finland in spring 2016, had been appealing against the result of his asylum application at the time of the attack.

"He has received the result of his asylum application and he has appealed it. He is still in the (asylum) process," said a spokeswoman from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation.

Applications for asylum of at least two of three other suspects who had been arrested were also being processed, the Red Cross said.

Additional reporting agencies