A SUSPECTED far-right knifeman has stabbed a 12-year-old at a shopping centre, leaving another child seriously wounded.
The rampage took place in the northern Finnish city of Oulu as the suspect will face preliminary charges of two attempted murders, officials said.
AlamyA man went on a rampage at the Valkea Shopping Centre[/caption]
GettyA stabbing attack took place in the city of Oulu, Finland[/caption]
Janne Nousiainen / LehtikuvaLocal media has named Sebastian Lämsä is the suspected attacker[/caption]
Finland‘s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said in a statement: “The criminal investigation is still at an early stage and the police do not know the exact motive for the act.
“They know, however, that the suspect has a background in extreme right activities.”
The 12-year-old Finnish child with a foreign background was in a stable condition after being seriously injured in Thursday evening’s attack, cops said.
His injuries were not life-threatening.
Public broadcaster YLE showed footage of what appears to be as a puddle of blood on the Valkea shopping centre floor.
According to the Finnish outlet, Sebastian Lämsä is the suspect behind Thursday evening’s attack.
The suspect was believed to have stabbed the child several times from behind before being stopped by a security guard, the NBI said.
He was arrested by cops outside the shopping centre immediately after the stabbing horror.
Born in 1990, Lämsä allegedly has neo-Nazi links and has previously been convicted of serious acts of violence.
YLE reported the suspect was a former key member of the Nordic Resistance Movement – a neo-Nazi group banned in Finland since 2020.
He pepper-sprayed a left-wing politician at an Oulu Pride event in 2012, and in 2013 he was found guilty of stabbing someone at a speech on the rise of far-right groups.
He received a one and a half-year suspended sentence for the stabbing, YLE reports.
Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo condemned the shopping centre attack.
He said in a post on X: “Far-right violence is a genuine threat in Finland.
“There is no room for extremism of any kind in this country.”
The 12-year-old child was in a stable condition after being seriously wounded in the attack, police said.
Oula Silvennoinen, an extreme right-wing researcher at the University of Helsinki told YLE he isn’t shocked by the stabbing but said it is rare to have a child as the target of right-wing attacks.
He added: “This kind of violence is always expected from them. It’s only a matter of time because it hurts. There has been no visible improvement in the situation.
“Although the Nordic Resistance Movement has been abolished in Finland, its members have not disappeared anywhere.”
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