Police in Oulu are searching for a man who is suspected of carrying out an unprovoked attack on a foreign national in the Raksila district of the city on Tuesday evening.
According to investigators, the suspect was cycling on a bike when he struck the victim, who was walking, with a knife in the upper body. The attack occurred at about 8pm.
Based on current information, police believe the suspect and the victim were not previously known to each other, and the attack was random.
A spokesperson for the Oulu police department, Tero Väyrynen, confirmed to Yle that the victim is of foreign background.
However, Väyrynen added that police have no reason to believe at this point that the attack was racially motivated.
There was a series of high-profile stabbing attacks on foreign nationals in Oulu in the summer of 2024, including by a known neo-Nazi on two children and by a teenager on a Bangladeshi national. Both attacks occurred a few days apart in the same shopping centre in the city.
Oulu police have requested the public's help in tracing the suspect of Tuesday's attack. He is described as being relatively young in age. He was wearing a dark beige jacket and was riding a "traditional" narrow-tyred men's bicycle at the time of the incident.
