7 hurt in 'IS knife attack' in Russia

The Islamic State jihadist group yesterday claimed responsibility of a knife attack that injured seven people in a remote far northern Russian city after terror incidents shook Spain and Finland.

"The executor of the stabbing operation in the city of Surgut in Russia is a soldier of the Islamic State," IS propaganda outlet Amaq said in a statement, after the jihadists also claimed responsibility for twin attacks in Spain that left 14 dead and injured 120 more.

Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said a man in Surgut had "carried out attacks on passers-by, causing stab wounds" yesterday morning. It said armed police called to the scene killed the attacker.

The attack also comes a day after a stabbing spree in Finland, which left two people dead and eight others injured and is being investigated as a terrorist attack, although the assailant's motive is unknown.

The city of Surgut lies some 2,100 kilometres northeast of Moscow and is the largest in the oil-rich Khanty-Mansi region. It does not have a large Muslim population.

A spokesman for regional police downplayed the possibility of a terrorist incident, telling Interfax news agency that the theory that the incident was "a terrorist (attack) is not the main one".

There has not yet been any official response to the IS claim.

The Investigative Committee said it had established the attacker's identity, saying he was a local resident born in 1994, and that they were looking into "his possible psychiatric disorders".

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny questioned authorities' treatment of the incident, writing on Twitter: "Someone runs round with a knife and tries to kill as many people as possible. What is that, if not a terrorist attack?"

Investigators have opened a criminal probe into attempted murder, not terrorism, with the Investigative Committee's chief Alexander Bastrykin taking the case under his personal control.

Regional officials said four of those stabbed remained in a serious condition while another was stable in hospital. Two have already been discharged.

Russian television reported that the stabbing victims are aged between 27 and 77 and include two women.

In Finland, the stabbings were initially probed as murders but further information received meant "the offences now include murders with terrorist intent," police said in a statement yesterday.

Police shot and wounded the knife-wielding suspect, detaining him minutes after Friday's rampage at a busy market square in Turku, southwestern Finland.

Eight other people were injured, among them six women, police said. Among the injured in Turku were an Italian national, a Swede and a Briton. The rest were Finns.

Finland raised its emergency readiness after the attack, increasing security at airports and train stations and putting more officers on the streets.

Four Moroccan citizens were arrested in a Turku apartment and refugee reception centre overnight. They have links to the suspect, but police have not yet established whether they were connected to Friday's attack.

Officers identified the main suspect as a 18-year-old Moroccan citizen who arrived in Finland in early 2016 and sought asylum. His name was not disclosed, nor his motive known.

"We tried to talk with the attacker in hospital but he didn't want to speak," Granroth said. The suspect is being treated for a gunshot wound to the thigh.

Media reports said his asylum request had been rejected but police would not confirm this.

Police said they were examining whether the suspect had any link to the Islamic State group. Police also issued an international arrest warrant for another person outside Finland, who is believed to be dangerous.

Police were also probing whether there was a link to the vehicle attacks in Barcelona and another Spanish seaside resort.

Most of the suspects in those attacks were also Moroccan citizens.

In Spain, police yesterday hunted for a Moroccan man suspected to have carried out one of two terror attacks plunging the country into shock and grief.

Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said the cell behind the carnage in the holiday cities of Barcelona and Cambrils had been "dismantled".

Police said they had cast a dragnet for 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub. Media reports said he was the driver of a van that smashed into people on Barcelona's busy Las Ramblas boulevard on Thursday killing 13 people.

Just hours later, a similar attack struck in the seaside town of Cambrils early Friday. Police killed the five attackers in Cambrils, some of whom were wearing fake explosive belts.

The so-called Islamic State group claimed responsibility for both the attacks.

The IS's claim in Spain is believed to be their first in the country, but the method of using vehicles as weapons follows other assaults commandeered or inspired by the group, including in Berlin, London and Paris.

The terror cell in Spain reportedly comprised at least 12 young men, some of them teenagers.

Investigators have been honing in on the small town of Ripoll, at the foot of the Pyrenees, where many of the suspects -- including Abouyaaqoub -- lived.

Yesterday, police raided the apartment of an imam, Abdelbaki Es Satty.

Spanish daily El Pais, quoting police sources, said the imam may have been one of those killed in an explosion in a home in Alcanar, some 200 kilometres south of Barcelona, where the alleged jihadists were believed to have been building bombs.

A waiter at a Ripoll cafe told AFP he had served beers to some of the suspects numerous times, most recently just two days ago.

Police said they believed the suspects were planning a much larger attack.

"They were preparing one or several attacks in Barcelona, and an explosion in Alcanar stopped this as they no longer had the material they needed to commit attacks of an even bigger scope," said Josep Lluis Trapero of Catalonia's police.

Security forces were seen removing dozens of gas canisters from the house in Alcanar on Friday.