Two people have died and six others have been injured after a stabbing attack in a market square in the south-western city of Turku, Finland.
At about 4.40pm, south-west Finland police tweeted: “Several people stabbed in central Turku. People are requested to avoid the city centre.”
An attacker was taken into custody following the incident and was being treated in hospital after being shot in the thigh by armed officers. It’s unclear whether multiple perpetrators were involved.
Finnish authorities have said that it is too early to describe the incident as terrorism.
Eyewitness Jesse Brown told the BBC: “I saw police shoot a person, a man I think. People were running and there was talk about a knife attack, possibly multiple perpetrators.”
Another witness, Laura Laine, reported seeing a man wielding a large knife at the city centre’s Puutori market square.
“We heard that a young woman was screaming. We saw a man on the square and a knife glittered,” she told told Finnish broadcaster YLE. “He was waving it in the air. I understood that he had stabbed someone.”
An attacker was taken into custody following the incident, which killed at least two people.
Authorities placed the city centre on lockdown and have heightened security nationwide.
Kent Svensson, 44, from Sweden also recalled seeing a man with “a huge white knife.”
“It was really horrible,” he said. “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.”
“There was blood everywhere,” he said, adding that he saw a victim lying on the ground.
Eyewitnesses have recalled a scene of terror and carnage.
The incident comes a day after drivers slammed vehicles into pedestrians in two attacks in Spain, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 100 others.
Witnesses described a scene of chaos and panic as a white van zigzagged along the popular tourist area of Las Ramblas in Barcelona, mowing down people and sending others fleeing for cover.
Australian tourist Susan McLean said she was 100 metres from the incident:
“All of a sudden there was this tidal wave of people running from both Placa de Catalunya and Las Ramblas towards us screaming, crying and with absolute terror etched on their faces,” she told Channel Nine.
She said the scene was reminiscent of Melbourne’s Bourke Street tragedy.
“My first reaction was the Bourke Street [rampage], because that is what it reminded me of, the vision of people fleeing in just such terror.”
Catalan police have confirmed they are treating the incident as a terrorist attack, with Interior Minister Joaquim Forn adding the number of fatalities will likely rise.
More as we get it.
