Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said that a man who is suspected of stabbing and seriously wounding a 12-year-old in Oulu on Thursday has a background of far-right extremism.
According to information obtained by Yle, the suspect is 33-year-old Sebastian Lämsä, a former key member of a banned neo-Nazi group, the Nordic Resistance Movement (PVL).
The stabbing took place at the Valkea shopping centre in central Oulu on Thursday at 6:36pm, according to local authorities.
The 12-year-old victim is a Finn of foreign background, according to the NBI.
On Thursday police said the victim's injuries were serious but not life-threatening.
The suspect, who is in his thirties, was apprehended by police outside the shopping centre after the incident. He is suspected of two attempted murders, according to authorities.
The man is also suspected of trying to stab another person but this attempt was unsuccessful, Ari Soronen of the NBI's Oulu unit said.
Suspect was in banned neo-Nazi group
Lämsä has previously been convicted of violent crimes and has a background in right-wing extremism, including belonging to the neo-Nazi group PVL, which has since been banned in Finland.
In 2012, Lämsä pepper-sprayed Left Alliance politician Dan Koivulaakso in the face during a Pride event in Oulu.
Then in 2013, Lämsä was convicted on a number of charges after being found guilty of stabbing a person at a library in Jyväskylä, during an event about the spread of far-right groups.
In that case, Lämsä was handed a one-and-a-half year suspended prison sentence, for crimes including aggravated assault, assault and unlawful political activity.
Two other people affiliated with PVL attempted to enter the library during the event, and Lämsä was later found guilty of stabbing a person who tried to stop them. The court found that Lämsä had initiated the violence.
According to Yle's information, Lämsä was also suspected of endangering health and safety offences, in a case related to a two-kilogramme package addressed to him that may have contained explosives.
The preliminary investigation into that case continues.
In 2020, the Supreme Court upheld a ruling to ban the PVL.
Purra mistakenly links stabbing to street gangs
When reports of the stabbing first began to emerge on Thursday evening, Finland's Finance Minister and leader of the nationalist Finns Party Riikka Purra wrote about the incident on social media platform X.
"Unfortunately with street crime, street gangs, etc, the same is happening here as in other countries," Purra wrote.
Following widespread criticism, Purra clarified in a follow-up post that the fight against all crimes "must be taken seriously".
"Extremist movements, drugs, robberies, gangs - the problems are growing," she wrote.
Edited to add details about the suspect as well as Purra's post.
