According to police in Oulu, a local high school student who was seriously injured after an apparent random attack on Monday has a foreign background, but there were no indications the attack was racially motivated.
On Tuesday, police said that the victim's condition was serious but stable and was receiving care at Oulu University Hospital. However, investigators have so far been unable to interview the victim about the incident, due to the victim's condition, according to a police press release.
Officers apprehended a 23-year-old male suspect from Oulu on Monday and interviews with him began the following day, according to police. Authorities are investigating the case as attempted manslaughter.
Police said that based on initial interviews, there were no indications the stabbing was racially motivated, adding that the attack appears to have been carried out spontaneously.
Police: No link to mall stabbings
In the release, police acknowledged public speculation that the stabbing could have been linked to stabbings that occurred in the summer in the city's Valkea shopping mall.
In June, there were two stabbing incidents at the mall. The first incident involved a man who stabbed and injured a 12-year-old with a foreign background. The man suspected of that crime, 33-year-old far-right extremist Sebastian Lämsä, belonged to the Nordic Resistance Movement, a banned neo-Nazi group.
About a week later, a second stabbing at the mall, which injured a man with a foreign background, was thought to be a copycat attack.
However on Tuesday, police said that Monday's incident was not connected to the previous attacks.
The victim attends secondary school at the Kastellin community centre, a multipurpose building that is home to a primary- and high school, a library, as well as a youth centre.
The stabbing took place on a pedestrian and bike path near the facility.
Police said that it is still safe for people to move around in Oulu. They also said that, statistically, the past year has not been exceptional in terms of the number of violent crimes.
Schools offer support
According to a school announcement sent to parents of children at the schools, a few elementary school pupils had seen the injured victim. The school said support would be offered to those who need it.
Meanwhile, the head of the City of Oulu's education and culture unit, Mika Penttilä, said that he was saddened by the incident.
According to Penttilä, the high school is offering counselling to students. Classes at the facility have continued normally since the incident.
"In particular, our student care staff, for example, psychologists, administrators, school health nurses and doctors are on standby at the school to support pupils," Penttilä said, adding that the violent incident calls for a societal discussion.
"We cannot escape the fact that this happened. This inevitably causes us as a society to discuss why individual minors, or anyone else, would become the victim of a stabbing in broad daylight," he said.
Penttilä said that Oulu remained a very safe city.
"However, in our big city such things do very rarely occur — and society, the police and other authorities work very well. It is safe to come to school," Penttilä said.
