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8 hurt in Minnesota mall stabbing carried out by ‘Islamic State’
BEIRUT: A man who wounded eight people in a knife attack on Saturday at a mall in central Minnesota before he was shot dead by an off-duty police officer is a “soldier
BEIRUT: A man who wounded eight people in a knife attack on Saturday at a mall in central Minnesota before he was shot dead by an off-duty police officer is a “soldier of the Islamic State,” the militant group’s news agency said.
The man, who was wearing a private security uniform, made references to “Allah” and asked at least one person if they were Muslim before he assaulted them at the Crossroads Center mall in St Cloud, the city’s Police Chief William Blair Anderson told reporters.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the authenticity of the claim made by Islamic State through the group’s affiliated Amaq news agency.
A spokesperson for the US National Security Council said it was aware of the claim but deferred to local investigators. The FBI did not immediately respond when asked about the Amaq statement.
“Whether that was a terrorist attack or not, I’m not willing to say that right now because we just don’t know,” Anderson said at a news conference.
“We’ll figure out what this is and when we do we will be transparent about it,” he added. He gave no details of the identities of the victims.
The knife attack in St Cloud, a community about 100 km northwest of Minneapolis-St Paul, comes at a time of heightened concern in the US about the threat of violence in public places.
In St Cloud, the attacker entered the mall in the evening as it was busy with shoppers, Anderson said.
He attacked his victims at several sites in the shopping centre, which will remained closed on Sunday as police investigate, the police chief said.
The eight wounded were transported to St Cloud Hospital but none were believed to have lifethreatening injuries, said Chris Nelson, a communications specialist for the medical facility.
One victim was expected to remain there, but the other seven patients had already been released or were expected to be let go shortly, officials said. Police officials said they were still interviewing witnesses hours after the attack.
