Finland 'terror': Suspect in Turku stabbings 'targeted women'

The teenager suspected of several stabbings in Finland is believed to have specifically targeted women, police have said.

Two people were killed and eight wounded in the city of Turku on Friday afternoon before police shot the attacker in the leg and arrested him.

Police believe the attack was terror related.

The suspect is an 18-year-old Moroccan who had arrived in Finland in 2016 as an asylum seeker.

Police have revealed that both of the dead were Finnish. A British man was among the injured, as well as two Swedes and one Italian.

The British man received minor injuries and did not need to go to hospital, the British Foreign Office said.

"Our staff have offered support to a British man following an incident in Finland," the FCO said.

Police said intelligence emerged suggesting the stabbings were "terrorist killings".

"The act had been investigated as murder, but during the night we received additional information which indicates that the criminal offences are now terrorist killings," police said in a statement.

"The suspect's identity is known to the police. He is an 18-year-old Moroccan citizen."

Finnish police also arrested five people in a Turku apartment overnight in connection with the stabbings.

"There was a raid and we have now six suspects in custody, the main suspect and five others," Detective Superintendent Markus Laine of the National Bureau of Investigation told AFP.

"We are investigating the role of these five other people but we are not sure yet if they had anything to do with (the attack).

"We will interrogate them, after that we can tell you more. But they had been in contact with the main suspect."

The main suspect is being treated in hospital in intensive care for a gunshot wound to the thigh.

Media reports in Finland said police believed the suspect had picked his victims at random, but Mr Laine could not confirm that.

Police have said it was likely the suspect acted alone, but added they were looking for "other possible perpetrators".

Witnesses described the attack. "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 during one of the attacks.

"Then a person ran towards 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."

Central Turku was quickly cordoned off after the attack, which occurred just after 4pm (1300 GMT).

The attack in Finland came a day after two terror attacks in Spain - one in Barcelona and another in the seaside town Cambrils.

Four men, aged 21, 27, 28 and 34, have been arrested in connection with those attacks and remain in custody.

Three are Moroccan and one is Spanish.

Police are continuing a manhunt for Younes Abouyaaqoub, a 22-year-old Moroccan suspected of driving a van at crowds in Barcelona.