Six children among nine hurt in US stabbing attack

WASHINGTON: An “unprovoked” stabbing attack in an Idaho apartment complex that is home to many refugees left nine people injured including six children, police in the capital city of Boise said.

Police apprehended a suspect, a 30-year-old man they named as Timmy Kinner who was until Friday a resident at the same complex, but not a refugee himself.

“Four of the victims received life-threatening injuries,” the Boise Police Department said in a statement about the incident, which occurred on Saturday night.

The statement added that Kinner had been “asked to leave” the apartment on Friday, and that “the suspect’s exact motives and reasons for attacking specific individuals is still under investigation.”

“As you can imagine the witnesses in the apartment complex along with the rest of our community are reeling from this attack,” Police Chief Bill Bones said.

“This incident is not a representation of our community but a single evil individual who attacked people without provocation that we are aware of at this time.”

Boise, in the southwestern corner of the western state, has a population of about 220,000.

The state of Idaho has a small but growing immigrant population, accounting for about six percent of the total. Immigrants make up some 40 percent of the labor force in the farming and fishing sectors.

On Saturday, several thousand people marched outside the Idaho State Capitol in Boise to protest Trump administration immigration policies, one of many such rallies across the country.