‘IS stabbing’ at Minnesota mall injures 9

September 18, 2016 12:18 pm | Updated November 01, 2016 07:25 pm IST - St. Cloud

Suspected attacker found dead inside the mall.

A man who wounded up to nine people in a knife attack 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 on Sunday.

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 on Saturday, the city’s Police Chief William Blair Anderson told reporters.

“Whether that was a terrorist attack or not, I’m not willing to say that right now because we just don’t know,” Mr. Anderson said at a news conference.

‘Soldier of IS’

In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Mr. Anderson said eight or nine people were wounded in the attack. Authorities had said earlier there were eight victims but one injured person transported himself to a hospital and was not initially counted, Mr. Anderson said.

Amaq, the news agency affiliated with the IS, issued a statement on Sunday saying, “The executor of the stabbing attacks in Minnesota yesterday was a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to calls to target the citizens of countries belonging to the crusader coalition.”

Reuters was not immediately able to verify the Amaq claim.

Kyle Loven, a spokesman for the FBI regional office in Minnesota, said the agency was aware of the claim of responsibility and was working with local police in the investigation. A representative of the U.S. National Security Council also said it was aware of the claim but deferred to local investigators.

Busy shopping centre

The knife attack in St. Cloud, a community about 60 miles (100 km) northwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul, came at a time of heightened concern in the United States 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, Mr. 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.

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