An Islamic State (ISIS) supporter carried out the stabbing attack that wounded at least 8 people at a mall in the US state of Minnesota on Saturday, the militant group’s Amaq news agency said.
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.Amaq Statement
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the authenticity of the claim.
A man wearing a private security uniform and armed with at least one knife stabbed eight people at the Crossroads Center mall before he was shot dead by an off-duty police officer, authorities said.
At least eight people were taken to a hospital with injuries after a stabbing attack at a St Cloud shopping mall in Minnesota at 8pm local time on Saturday evening. The attack ended with the suspected attacker left dead inside the mall.
St Cloud Police have confirmed that the attacker asked at least one person if they were Muslim before assaulting them, and made references to ‘Allah’ before the rampage.
St Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson confirmed that the attacker was confronted by an off-duty police officer, who “summarily shot and killed him”.
CNN reports that the attacker was dressed in a private security uniform, and attacked people in multiple locations, including a common area and inside several stores. Though the attacker was not identified, St Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson reportedly said that he was known to police for minor traffic violations.
At the time, Anderson expressed reluctance to name it a terror attack, saying:
What we know is it is a lone suspect who attacked at least eight people... whether that was a terrorist attack or not, I’m not willing to say that right now because we just don’t know.Blair Anderson, Police Chief, to CNN
Harley and Tama Exsted of Isle, Minnesota, who were in St Cloud to watch their son play in a college golf tournament, were in the mall when the incident occurred.
“All of a sudden I heard ‘pop pop pop’,” Harley Exsted told the St Cloud Times. “I thought someone tipped over a shelf. All of a sudden these people started running. I just saw everybody running our way.”
St Cloud is about 70 miles (112.65 kilometres) northwest of Minneapolis.
(With inputs from AP, CNN)
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