MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. Two people have been killed and seven wounded by a knifeman who stabbed passers-by in Finland’s city of Turku on Friday, a Finnish police official said at a press conference.

"We confirm that nine people [have been wounded,] the police official said. He specified that "two of them have died."

The twenty-year-old was running with a knife to Turku’s Market Square, the Turun Sanomat newspaper reported, quoting eye-witnesses. The passers-by tried to stop him and warn people on the square about the danger.

Police opened fire on the attacker, wounding him in the leg. He is in hospital now. Finland’s Ministry of the Interior said he is not a Finnish citizen.

Law enforcement authorities ask people to avoid the city center. Security measures in Helsinki’s airport and railway stations were tightened in connection with the Turku attack.