Knife attack in Turku on August 18, 2017

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Turku market square where the attack began (photo taken in 2008)

In a knife attack on August 18, 2017 in the Finnish city ​​of Turku , the twenty-two-year-old Abderrahman Bouanane from Morocco stabbed two women and injured eight people. The investigative authorities consider it likely that the attacker was motivated by terrorism and that he specifically selected women as victims.

background

Finland has had low levels of political violence since the end of World War II and has been one of the most peaceful countries in Europe in terms of political violence and terrorism for decades . On June 14, 2017, the Finnish Police (Supo) declared the threat level "increased" (level 2 of 4) and wrote that Islamist-motivated individual actors and small groups pose a terrorist threat.

Sequence of events

Route of the assassin during the knife attack - from the market square to the Holzmarkt (place of arrest)

On the afternoon of August 18, 2017, a man attacked several people with a knife from the market square ( kauppatori ) in central Turku . Two women died in the attack; eight other people were injured. At 4:02 p.m. the police received an emergency call . The police officers who were summoned shot the attacker in the legs in the wood market ( Puutori ) and then arrested him, just three minutes after the emergency call. The assassin had walked about 400 meters since the first attack.

Immediately after the crime, the police ordered people to avoid downtown Turku and not come into the city. In the center of the city, the police were looking for other possible perpetrators. Rumors of possible further attackers were not confirmed and the police gave the all-clear for the city center at around 7:20 pm.

Victim

Reported Victims by Citizenship
citizenship dead Injured
FinlandFinland Finland 2 5
ItalyItaly Italy 0 1
SwedenSweden Sweden 0 1
United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom 0 1
All in all 2 8th

The two women stabbed to death were Finnish. One died on site, the other in the evening of the attack in Turku University Hospital. Eight people, six women and two men, were injured. The perpetrator presumably targeted female victims: one of the victims was pushing a baby in a stroller. The two injured men were attacked while trying to protect one of the victims or opposing the perpetrator. Among the injured are, along with other Finns, an Italian, a Swedish and a British citizen. The victims are between 15 and 67 years old.

Perpetrator

The 22-year-old Moroccan perpetrator Abderrahman Bouanane traveled to Germany at the end of 2015 during the height of the refugee crisis , but did not apply for asylum there . He stayed in several federal states and under several alias identities in Germany until the beginning of 2016 . Between January and April 2016 he lived, among other places, in refugee shelters in Neuss . During this time he was investigated for illegal residence and for assault , but there was no suspicion of terrorism. At the beginning of 2016 he is said to have applied for asylum in Finland, which was rejected.

According to reports from the Finnish public broadcaster Yleisradio , the perpetrator is said to have listened to radical sermons on his smartphone. He described Finns as kuffars (infidels) and expressed sympathy for the Islamic State . At the beginning of 2017, the Finnish police received a report that the later perpetrator had been noticed by “extremist thinking”. However, the notice was not followed up as no specific threat was seen at the time. Two months before the crime, the Finnish secret service released a report stating that the Islamic State no longer classifies Finland as neutral and poses a threat to the country.

Finland's Interior Minister Paula Risko mentioned the IS terrorist attack in Barcelona the day before . The next day the police assumed a terrorist background. According to the police, the perpetrator stabbed women specifically. The Finnish criminal police announced that they had arrested four other Moroccans in an apartment block on the outskirts of the city, who are suspected of having been involved in planning or carrying out the attack. A person is being searched internationally. Like the perpetrator, three of these five alleged backers stayed in Germany for a time. Among other things, two of the alleged backers were in Hamburg and Göttingen as well as in Osnabrück and Hamburg.

On August 22, 2017, Abderrahman Bouanane confessed to the crime. According to his lawyer, he denies having acted with murder intent.

After the fact

Turku market square with flowers and lit candles

On the night from Saturday to Sunday, the police arranged another house search in Turku; no other people were arrested. On the morning of August 20, the criminal police carried out a reconstruction of the course of the crime.

Finland tightened border controls and security measures at major train stations and at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport after the attack . Buses and trains were diverted out of Turku. An emergency number has been set up for relatives and a local crisis group has been set up. The flags were raised to half-mast the next day. On the day after the attack, many people laid flowers and lit candles on the market square. There was a nationwide minute's silence in memory of the victims on Sunday morning at 10 a.m.

The Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä condemned the attack the next day as a "cowardly and despicable act" that contradicts humanistic and religious principles. Terrorism has now also reached Finland: "We are no longer an island".

Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her condolences in a phone call on Saturday and promised Finland the full support of Germany. Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière spoke of a "devious attack with a terrorist background".

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c Two dead in Turku: police speak of suspected terrorism after fatal knife attack in Finland. In: Focus Online . August 19, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Knivmannen i Åbo är identifierad - han är född 1994. In: Yleisradio . August 27, 2017. Retrieved August 29, 2017 (Swedish).
  3. ↑ a b Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Finland: Police suspect terrorist motive in knife attack - Aktuell Europa - DW - 19 August 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b c knife attack in Finland: What we know - and what not. In: Spiegel Online . August 19, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Toby Archer: International Terrorism and Finland . Ulkopoliittinen instituutti (Finnish Foreign Policy Institute), Espoo 2004, ISBN 951-769-155-6 , pp. 14-15.
  6. ↑ Terrorist Threat in Finland Elevated. In: Suojelupoliisi ( Security Police). June 14, 2017, accessed August 20, 2017 .
  7. ↑ a b Turun puukottajan silmitön juoksu kesti 3 minuuttia --ätä reittiä epäilty hyökkääjä kulki , Ilta-Sanomat , August 18, 2017, accessed on August 19, 2017 (Finnish, showing the spatial and temporal progression).
  8. ↑ a b c Finland stabbings: Two dead and suspect shot in Turku. In: BBC News . August 18, 2017, accessed August 18, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Two dead in knife attack in Finland. In: n-tv . August 18, 2017. Retrieved August 18, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Finland: Two dead in knife attack in Turku. In: The time . August 18, 2017. Retrieved August 18, 2017 .
  11. ↑ a b c Minst två personer döda och flera skadade efter knivdåd i Åbo - gärningsman gripen. In: Yleisradio . August 19, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2017 (Swedish).
  12. ↑ a b Polisen: Den huvudmisstänkte land till Finland 2016. In: Yleisradio . August 19, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2017 (Swedish).
  13. ↑ Detta vet vi om knivattacken i Åbo. In: Sveriges Television . August 19, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2017 (Swedish).
  14. ↑ a b Christina Anderson: Fatal Knife Attack in Finland Is Investigated as Terrorism . In: The New York Times . August 19, 2017, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed September 7, 2017]).
  15. ↑ a b perpetrators targeted women. In: Tagesschau.de . August 19, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2017 .
  16. ↑ a b Two dead, eight injured: 18-year-old admits knife attack in Turku. In: Der Spiegel . August 22, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Finland: 18-year-old admits knife attack in Turku - two women died. In: Focus Online . August 22, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017 .
  18. ↑ Andreas Bauer book, Verena Kensbock: knife attack in Turku: Alleged assassin Finland lived in Neuss refugee home. In: RP Online . August 23, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017 .
  19. ↑ zeit.de August 21, 2017
  20. ^ A b c SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: Two dead, eight injured: 18-year-old admits knife attack in Turku - SPIEGEL ONLINE - politics. Retrieved August 22, 2017 .
  21. ↑ Turku suspect wanted to join Isis, called Finns infidels . In: Yle Uutiset . ( yle.fi [accessed September 7, 2017]).
  22. ↑ Sewell Chan, Mikko Takkunen: Finland Attack Suspect, a Moroccan Youth, What Flagged for extremist views . In: The New York Times . August 21, 2017, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed September 7, 2017]).
  23. ↑ Polisen har gjort nya husrannsakningar - den misstänkte förhördes på söndagen. In: Yleisradio . August 20, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2017 (Swedish).
  24. ↑ a b Investigators check IS background. In: Saxon newspaper . August 20, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2017 .
  25. ↑ «We are no longer an island». In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . August 20, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2017 .

Coordinates: 60 ° 27 ′ 6 ″  N , 22 ° 16 ′ 1 ″  E