Finnish police release man arrested over knife attack

A minute’s silence is held at Turku Market Square in Turku, Finland, on Sunday Aug. 20, 2017. The knife attack in western Finland that left two people dead and several wounded is “a likely terror act,” Finland’s intelligence agency said Saturday, while police said Europol was investigating if it had any ties to deadly vehicle attacks in Spain. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP)

Finnish police released a third man on Saturday out of seven arrested following last week’s fatal stabbings in the city of Turku. Two women died and eight people were wounded in what police said at the time they suspected was Finland’s first terrorism-related assault.

The main suspect, who remains in custody, has been named as Abderrahman Mechkah, an 18-year-old Moroccan. He told a court he was responsible for the attack but denied his motive was terrorism. Officers arrested a total of seven people after the attack, and have now released three of them without charge.