Two people have died and at least six are injured after a 'stabbing attack' in a Finnish city.

A man with a knife has killed two people and wounded at least six in a stabbing rampage in a market square in the Finnish city of Turku.

Police shot the suspected attacker in the leg and arrested him on Friday. They said they had yet to establish the identity of the man who appeared to be of foreign origin, or his motive.

NEW: Finland police shoot man who stabs 8 people in Turku; 2 dead https://t.co/Vr66gD0rEj pic.twitter.com/qjhGOitVVB

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 18, 2017

They warned people to stay away from the city and reinforced security nationwide, with increased patrols and more surveillance, in case more people were involved. People were allowed to return to the city centre a few hours later.

“At this stage, there is only one suspect and we are investigating whether there are more people involved … but it looks likely (he was alone),” said Markus Laine from the National Bureau of Investigation.

“At this stage, we do not investigate this (as a terrorism attack) but the possibility has not been ruled out,” he told a news conference.

Interior Minister Paula Risikko said: “We have not been able to confirm the person’s identity… we have been in contact with the immigration service as the person looks like a foreigner.”

Turku Finland Terror Attack. #suomi #finland #turku #bbc #cnn #reuters #news Suspect is laying in the ground. Surrounded with police offisers More pics in here https://kirsikanerva.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Terror+attack+Turku+Finland/ Using pics without permission is not allowed Kuvien käyttö ilman lupaa on kielletty. @KirsiKanerva

A post shared by Kirsi Kanerva (@kirsi_kanerva) on Aug 18, 2017 at 7:22am PDT

Eyewitnesses described the panic at the scene.

“A man walked towards the ice cream stand where I work, and he hit a woman three times. He started running, went past my kiosk, and he had a knife in his hand,” Terttu Lehtinen told Reuters.

She said that some other men ran behind, apparently chasing him.

“We were sitting by the market square, just enjoying the afternoon. Suddenly people started screaming and yelling, they were hysterical,” said another witness, who gave her name only as Reetta.

“We started running towards our car and, as we got there, my boyfriend said a woman had been stabbed several times in the neck,” she told Reuters.

Local media also reported a woman pushing a baby in her pram was among those attacked and injured.

The six wounded were taken to hospital, police said.

Prime Minister Juha Sipila said: “My deepest condolences to the families and close-ones of the Turku victims. The events of the day are shocking us all.” He added that the government would meet later

Finland is usually peaceful but the Security Intelligence Service raised the terrorism threat level in June, saying it had become aware of terrorism-related plans in Finland.