On 25 August, a knife-wielding terrorist was shot dead by police near Brussel’s second most popular shopping street. At approximately 2020hrs local time, a man in his thirties attacked and wounded two soldiers, reportedly shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’, in the Sainte Catherine neighbourhood of the city, known for its shops, bars and restaurants. Islamic State propagandists had only days before called on sympathisers to stage an attack in the area, and so the incident has been treated as a radical-inspired terrorist assault. Another attack in a popular commercial zone occurred in Finland at 1600hrs local time on 18 August, in the central Market Square of the city of Turku. An 18-year-old Moroccan asylum seeker, and suspected extremist, conducted a stabbing attack killing two and injuring another eight. The assailant is thought to have deliberately targeted women during his attack (eight of the victims being female), which has been described as the first terrorist incident in modern Finnish history. Police neutralised the perpetrator at the scene by shooting him in the leg.

Find out more in our UK Threat Monitor report.