The suspect behind the deadly stabbing attack in the Finnish city of Turku was an 18-year-old Moroccan asylum-seeker, investigators said, adding that it seems the attacker deliberately targeted women.
“The suspect was seeking an asylum [in Finland],” Robin Lardot of the Central Bureau of Investigation said at a press conference on Saturday.
The attacker arrived in Finland in 2016, Lardot said, adding that it was not clear if the man was denied asylum.
Apart from the prime suspect, Finnish police detained four Moroccan citizens, Krista Granroth of the Central Bureau of Investigation said.
An international arrest warrant was also issued for a sixth person, she added, without disclosing the suspect’s nationality.