Four arrested in attack on Turkish Embassy in Finland
Finnish police arrested Tuesday four people suspected of setting fire to the Turkish Embassy in Helsinki, injuring one employee, the AP reported. (UPDATED)
A Turkish Embassy employee was injured in the early morning arson attack on the embassy building in central Helsinki.
The door of the embassy building was set ablaze at around 3:00 a.m. (0000 GMT), though the fire was quickly detected by a police patrol and extinguished, Finnish police said.
Turkish Ambassador Reha Keskintepe told AP that the incident appears to be linked to a similar attack on a Turkish diplomatic mission in Austria on Sunday.
Police spokesman Jussi Huhtela was quoted by AP as saying it was not clear whether the two attacks were related, but Keskintepe said they were part of the same "orchestrated attack" against Turkish interests.
"We had alerted the police on Friday because we had received warning from our authorities that there were signs, activities in Europe which pointed to ... that there might be an attack against Turkish embassies and premises," Keskintepe added.
The attack came two days after assailants broke into the Turkish consulate in Salzburg, Austria. They broke a window on the first floor with a rock and then threw in a type of homemade Molotov cocktail that caused a fire, Austrian police said.
No one was hurt in the Salzburg incident, and no suspects had been arrested.
"We strongly condemn this act which carries all the signs of a politically motivated terroristic (sic) attack carried out by the PKK/KONGRA-GEL terrorist organization," the embassy said in a statement.
"Terrorism should be condemned by all civilized countries. Nothing can justify acts of terrorism," it said.
Chief inspector Markku Stenberg told AFP that police would carry out an investigation at the scene to determine the exact cause of the fire. He said it was possible flammable liquids were used.