Two people have been killed and at least six others injured in a stabbing in Finland, police officials say.
Police said they shot the man who attacked several people in the south-western city of Turku.
He has been taken into custody after being shot in the leg, police say.
The incident reportedly took place in the Puutori-Market Square area. Police have warned other attackers may remain at large, and asked people to stay away from the city centre.
Turku University Hospital director Petri Virolainen told journalists that at least eight people had been sent there with injuries, and one person had died.
At a press conference later, police confirmed a second death.
A tweet from South-West Finland police at 16:40 local time (13:40 GMT) read: “Several people stabbed in central Turku. People are requested to avoid the city centre.”
The Turun Sanomat newspaper said several ambulances were at the scene and police were carrying out checks on public transport.
Several buildings were evacuated, and police officers investigated a number of people in a nearby shopping centre – but did not link them to the attack.
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.”
A later Twitter post by police read: “The police are searching for possibly more perpetrators in Turku.”
Image copyrightSASKIA MERELLEBriton Lee Hills, from Sunderland, sent the BBC a photograph of the scene of the incident. He was being kept in police lockdown in a pub about 200m from the scene.
Another witness, student Anttoni Numminen, said he had been playing pool in a bar when he heard gunshots. People began rushing into the bar, he said, and “the place immediately went on lockdown.”
“We are getting messages from family and friends that there were people with knives,” he said.
Finland’s Prime Minister Juha Sipila said his government was monitoring the situation closely. The interior minister and national police commissioner also said they were travelling to the city.
Security was also increased at key sites in the southern capital of Helsinki, where armed police could be seen at the central train station and the airport.
BBC
