2 DEAD,SUSPECT ARRESTED IN CITY OF TURKU AFTER STABBING ATTACK (PHOTOS)

Witnesses described seeing a man walk towards an ice cream stand in the square and start attacking.

A man with a knife has killed two people and injured at least six in a stabbing rampage in a market square in the Finnish city of Turku, police said.

Key points:

•Two people have died and eight people are injured in a stabbing rampage

•The suspect has been arrested

•The incident is not being treated as terrorism

Police shot the suspected attacker in the leg and arrested him.

They said they had yet to establish the identity of the man who appeared to be of foreign origin, or his motive.

They warned people to stay away from the city and reinforced security nationwide, with increased patrols and more surveillance, in case more people were involved.

People were allowed to return to the city centre a few hours later.

"At this stage, there is only one suspect and we are investigating whether there are more people involved … but it looks likely [he was alone]," said Markus Laine from the National Bureau of Investigation.

"At this stage, we do not investigate this [as a terrorism attack] but the possibility has not been ruled out."

Finland's top police chief, Seppo Kolehmainen, said it was too early to link the attack to international terrorism.

"Nothing is known about the motives … or what precisely has happened in Turku," he said.

Interior Minister Paula Risikko said: "We have not been able to confirm the person's identity … we have been in contact with the immigration service as the person looks like a foreigner."

'People were yelling and screaming'

Eyewitnesses described the panic at the scene.

"A man walked towards the ice cream stand where I work, and he hit a woman three times. He started running, went past my kiosk, and he had a knife in his hand," Terttu Lehtinen said.

She said that some other men ran behind, apparently chasing him.

"We were sitting by the market square, just enjoying the afternoon. Suddenly people started screaming and yelling, they were hysterical," said another witness, who gave her name only as Reetta.

"We started running towards our car and, as we got there, my boyfriend said a woman had been stabbed several times in the neck."

The six wounded were taken to hospital, police said.

Prime Minister Juha Sipila said: "My deepest condolences to the families and close-ones of the Turku victims. The events of the day are shocking us all."

He added that the Government would meet later.

Finland is usually peaceful but the Security Intelligence Service raised the terrorism threat level in June, saying it had become aware of terrorism-related plans in Finland.

The Government has grown more concerned about attacks, partly since an Uzbek man

killed four people in neighbouring Sweden in April by driving a hijacked truck into crowd in central Stockholm.

The attack comes one day after a suspected Islamist militant drove a van into crowds in Barcelona , Spain, killing 13 people and wounding scores of others.