An eyewitness who was with his/her child in a playground near the shopping center encountered the suspected stabbing suspect and told him to stop.
The witness describes hearing a scream from the street about the stabbing and seeing a middle-aged woman leaning against a pillar, bleeding. It appeared that the woman had been stabbed in the hand. The witness shouted to passersby to call an ambulance.
– I saw a man in his twenties wearing a grey hoodie walking towards the terrace of John Scott’s very calmly, the witness says.
He had a feeling that the man, who was acting unusually calmly, might be involved in the stabbing.
– Was that you? the witness says he asked the man with the child in his/her arms.
The man did not respond to the question, so the witness told him to stop several times. At this point the man was about 15 metres away.
– I shouted “stop”. He woke up and turned around. At that moment, security guards came to arrest him.
According to the eyewitness, the man did not resist when he was arrested.
– It was definitely a bit of a threatening situation, the eyewitness says.
– There was a surprising amount of time to think about things. There was a children's play net behind me, so I didn't really have a place to run.
The eyewitness cannot say whether the person still had the bladed weapon in his hand when he ordered him to stop.
Young man attacked unexpectedly
According to another reader who contacted Iltalehti, a young man had suddenly attacked women with a knife near the main entrance of the shopping center.
According to the reader, the perpetrator was quickly caught on the spot. The reader says that the man had looked “normal”.
– I was eating with a friend at a nearby Hesburger, when several police and ambulances were outside when I went out, says Eelis, 15, who contacted Iltalehti.
He himself did not see the stabbing. According to him, there were at least five police cars and several security guards at the scene.
– Some of the people seemed to be in shock and some were describing the surroundings on their phones or talking to their loved ones, Eelis describes the situation.
According to the reader who contacted Iltalehti, there was a pool of blood in front of the restaurant near the Ratina shopping center. This is also confirmed by Iltalehti journalist Juha Veli Jokinen, who was there.
Police confirmed on Thursday evening that four people had been injured in a stabbing, but no fatalities were reported. Police have left the shopping center area.
Puukotuksen jäljet näkyvät ostoskeskuksen läheisyydessä.
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