HELSINKI, Finland (AFP) — Finnish police have released three of the seven suspects held following a stabbing spree that killed two people last week, they said in a statement Saturday.
But four men are still in custody after last week’s attack in the southwestern city of Turku, which investigators are treating as the country’s first terror attack.
They include the main suspect in the attack, which took place on August 18, a man police initially identified as Abderrahman Mechkah, an 18-year-old Moroccan asylum seeker.
Police say he deliberately targeted women in the attack, in a market square in the port city.
But officials have not responded to media reports that the authorities had refused the man asylum.
Reports in the Finnish media also say that while the man has acknowledged making the attacks, he said he had not intended to kill anyone and denied any terror motive.
Two of the men released were a Moroccan national and an Algerian detained on Wednesday.
