Daesh terrorist group has allegedly claimed responsibility for a stabbing attack in the Russian city of Surgut, Reuters reported. Russian investigators are still probing the attack and have not yet ruled the terrorist nature of the incident.

Earlier in the day, a man went on a stabbing rampage in the center of the Russian city of Surgut injuring at least seven. All the victims were hospitalized with wounds of differing severity.

The assailant was eliminated while he resisted arrest. A criminal case has been initiated under the article “attempted murder.” Later, the identity of the attacker has been revealed; he’s a 23-year-old local resident. The attacker also carried a suspicious bag. </s> A terrorist brandishing a knife wounded seven civilians in the Russian city of Surgut. Russian police killed the terrorist before he was able to inflict more harm on innocent people.

While early reports suggested the man was mentally ill, the international Salafist terrorist group ISIS, also known as Daesh has claimed responsibility through one of their online propaganda outlets. </s> Police officers stand by the body of a man who was killed after an alleged stabbing attack, in the Siberian city of Surgut, Russia, Saturday, Aug. 19, 2017. A knife-wielding man went on a stabbing rampage in a Siberian city on Saturday, wounding seven people before police shot and killed him. (Irina Shvets/Siapress.ru via AP) Police officers stand by the body of a man who was killed after an alleged stabbing attack, in the Siberian city of Surgut, Russia, Saturday, Aug. 19, 2017. A knife-wielding man went on a stabbing rampage in a Siberian city on Saturday, wounding seven people before police shot and killed him. (Irina Shvets/Siapress.ru via AP)

A man on Saturday stabbed seven people on the street in Russia’s far northern city of Surgut before being shot dead by the police. As per a report in Reuters, the Islamic State has claimed the responsibility for the attack. Russia’s Investigative Committee which probes major crimes in the nation said, armed police was called at the crime scene and the attacker was ‘liquidated’. The Committee said it has established the man’s identity, confirming him to be a local resident born in 1994.

According to the regional police, officers present at the scene fired warning shots before taking down the suspect who was wearing a balaclava. A statement released by the regional government said, two out of the seven injured are in critical condition. The city lies some 2,100 kilometers northeast of Moscow in the oil-rich Khanty-Mansi region.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App </s> MOSCOW (Reuters) - From seven to eight people were wounded in a knife attack in the Russian Siberian city of Surgut, local criminal investigators said on Saturday, adding that the attacker had been shot dead by police.

The militant Islamic State group, monitored in Cairo, said one of its fighters had carried out the attack, though a Russian law enforcement spokeswoman would not comment on whether police regarded the incident as terrorism related.

“A man was moving along the main streets stabbing people”, the local law enforcement committee in Surgut said in a statement on its website. No-one was killed in the attack.

The attacker, who was born in 1994, had been killed, it said. It did not identify him by name.

“The committee is investigating attempted murder”, its spokeswoman told Reuters by phone.

“The attacker responsible for the stabbing incident in Surgut in Russia is a fighter of the Islamic State”, the group said through the AMAQ news agency.

The militant Islamist group, whose fighters are hard pressed by international coalition and national forces in Syria and Iraq, regularly claims links with attacks carried out in Europe.

The perpetrators of many attacks have often been inspired by the group’s beliefs and acted alone, rather than been directed or organized by an Islamic State network on the ground. </s> The fight against IS still continues in the Middle East. — Reuters picCAIRO, Aug 19 —The Islamic State jihadist group today claimed responsibility after a man stabbed seven people on the street in a Russian city before being shot dead by police, despite investigators saying it was probably not a terrorist attack.

“The executor of the stabbing operation in the city of Surgut in Russia is a soldier of the Islamic State,” IS propaganda outlet Amaq said in a statement, after the jihadists also claimed responsibility for twin attacks in Spain that left 14 dead.

The attack also comes a day after a stabbing spree in Finland, which left two people dead and eight others injured and is being investigated as a terrorist attack, although the assailant’s motive is unknown.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said a man in Surgut had “carried out attacks on passers-by, causing stab wounds”. It said armed police called to the scene “liquidated” the attacker following the stabbing on Saturday morning.

Regional officials said seven people were taken to hospital, with the figure confirmed by investigators, who lowered an earlier toll of eight wounded.

A spokesman for regional police had earlier downplayed the possibility of a terrorist incident, telling Interfax news agency that the theory that the incident was “a terrorist (attack) is not the main one”.

The Investigative Committee said it had established the attacker’s identity, saying he was a local resident born in 1994, and that they were looking into “his possible psychiatric disorders”.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny questioned the authorities’ treatment of the incident, writing on Twitter: “Someone runs round with a knife and tries to kill as many people as possible. What is that, if not a terrorist attack?”

Investigators have opened a criminal probe into attempted murder, not terrorism, with the Investigative Committee’s chief Alexander Bastrykin taking the case under his personal control.

Regional police said officers fired warning shots at the scene before firing at the suspect, who was wearing a balaclava.

YouTube footage shown on Russia’s Ren TV television showed a black-clad man lying on a pedestrian walkway with a policeman kneeling on his back as sirens wail.

Unconfirmed reports from the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid and other media identified the attacker as 19-year-old Artur Gadzhiyev, saying that his father is known to authorities for involvement in radical religious organisations and comes from the mainly Muslim region of Dagestan in the North Caucasus.

Regional officials said four of those stabbed remained in a serious condition while another was stable in hospital. Two have already been discharged.

Russian television reported that the stabbing victims are aged between 27 and 77 and include two women.

State news agency TASS said the city’s largest shopping centre was evacuated after the stabbings, citing its director, and police posted a video of the attack site, showing it to be a busy area with traffic and blocks of flats.

The city lies some 2,100 kilometres northeast of Moscow in the oil-rich Khanty-Mansi region.

The region’s governor was flying out to the city to hold a meeting with investigators, regional authorities said.

The regional government moved to curb panic in the city, insisting the “situation is under the control of the authorities” and calling for calm.

A group suspected of links to Al-Qaeda claimed an April attack on the Saint Petersburg metro that killed 15 people and has been blamed on a Russian suicide bomber born in the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan. — AFP </s> A knife attacker stabbed eight people on the street in Russia's far northern city of Surgut before being shot by police, investigators said Saturday.

The male attacker "carried out attacks on passers-by, causing stab wounds to eight" while "moving along central streets of the city" at around 11:20 am local time, said Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes.

It said that armed police then arrived and used their weapons on the attacker and "liquidated" him.

The incident took place in a city some 1,330 miles northeast of Moscow in the oil-rich Khanty-Mansi region.

Two of those stabbed are in a serious condition while five more are in a stable condition, the government of the Khanty-Mansi region said in a statement, calling the attacker so far "unidentified."

It called for calm over the incident, saying that "in the interests of public calm and also of the investigation, citizens and media are recommended to use reliable information in assessing the situation until all the circumstances are established." </s> MOSCOW — A man wielding a knife attacked and wounded seven people on the central street in the Siberian town of Surgut on Saturday, local news reports and Russian investigators said.

The police later shot and killed the attacker, the Russian authorities said. The attack raised alarm about an expanding wave of terrorism in Europe, even as officials said there was no immediate information of the attacker’s motive.

The assault came within days of deadly attacks in Spain and Finland. Several attackers laid siege to the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Cambrils on Thursday, killing at least 14 and wounding more than 80 others in what officials called a terrorist act.

In Finland on Friday, a man stabbed two people to death and injured eight others in Turku before he was shot and apprehended. The Finnish authorities said on Saturday that they were treating the killings as a terrorist attack.

A Russian law enforcement group, the Investigative Committee, gave no immediate indication in an initial statement that the stabbings in the Siberian city, an oil industry hub in the far north, had any link to terrorism. </s> Donate

ISIS claimed responsibility for a stabbing attack in the Russian city of Surgut.

Earlier today, a 19-year-old local resident with a knife attacked and injured 8 people in the center of Surgut. The attacker was alegedly carrying a moulage of suicide belt.

На поясе убитого в Сургуте человека с ножом обнаружена подозрительная сумка. #Сургут #происшествияhttps://t.co/5D1QLP8IEB pic.twitter.com/vE3VhpVSEk — Пятый канал Новости (@5tv) 19 August 2017

The attacker was eliminated while he resisted arrest. Russian security services are probing the incident that clearly looks as a terrorist attack.

UPDATE: Russian police have declared that it does not view terrorism as a primary possible motive and is currently trying to verify a claim that the attacker suffered from a mental illness.

According to recent media reports, the attacker just attempted to use the ISIS bran to attract additional attention to his actions.

It should be noted that in Russia some criminal elements have used the ISIS brand in order to draw attention to his actions and to bluff opponents.

No doubts that a threat of possible terror attacks fueled by the ISIS ideology exists in the country. Recently, such attempts are mostly made by migrant workers from Central Asia. They likely use the ISIS ideology to protest against their low social status.

There is another difference between Russian and EU cities. In Russia, locals often make attempts to implement own measures against persons that pose a threat in public places. There have been multiple cases when Russian passangers have used force in order to solve conflicts with brawlers during air travels via the Russian airlines.

However, criminals armed with fire arms are another issue.

Police detained the suspect:

Donate </s> LONDON — Two people are dead and six were wounded in a stabbing in the city of Turku, western Finland, police said Friday. A hunt was underway for potential attackers, they added.

One suspected attacker was shot in the thigh, according to police who urged citizens to leave the immediate area in the center of the city while they searched for "possible more perpetrators."

The Turun Sanomat newspaper reported that at least one person was killed in the attack.

Pictures from the scene showed rescuers attending to the wounded.

Jesse Brown, a 29-year-old who is currently unemployed, said he saw part of the incident unfold.

"I saw police shoot a man. People were running and there was talk about possible knife attackers," he said. "I saw an injured person, a man, at the market square."

He said the injured person was "covered in blood."

Palman Afzali, a 26-year-old Afghan-born Finnish citizen, said he was leaving work as a nurse when he heard someone shout, followed by screams. He then saw a young man chasing people and stabbing them with a large knife.

"He was trying to hit people with the knife," Afzail told NBC News. "I ran past bodies on the ground, I saw a woman I think was already dead — I can't get her face out of my mind."

The police were not in the area to stop the individual, but normal people attempted to chase him down, Afzali said.

Riitta Koskela said she was about 100 yards from the square. "My daughter had stopped at a movie theatre to use the restroom when I saw people running and screaming," she said. "We hid in the restroom and more people ran in. The security locked the doors and kept us safe. Didn't know whether it was just one crazy person or more.”

She added: "I saw people screaming and running and took my family into hiding."

Jussi Marttila arrived at the scene some 15 minutes later.

"There are a lot of people in the street. It's fairly calm but the atmosphere is tense," he said. "There is a strong police presence and some ambulances in the market square. The environment is very tense and rumors are going wild."
A 23-year-old stabs and injures eight people in the Russian city of Surgut, before being killed by police. ISIL claims responsibility for the attack.