Soini comes under attempted attack from far right activist

A man wearing a jacket with the emblems of a right wing civic grouping tried to attack Foreign Minister Timo Soini on Sunday, media reported.

Soini was participating into a political event at a market place in Vantaa, north of Helsinki. The man was apprehended by Soini's official security before reaching Soini.

Police supervisor Juha Springare confirmed the incident to local media. Springare said the grounds for the attempted attack were not clear yet.

National broadcaster Yle reported the man would probably be charged for "resisting an official" based on his encounter with the police officers.

A press photographer of the STT-Lehtikuva was on location and published pictures of a man being detained and held on the ground.

The organization Soldiers of Odin is known for its street patrols and its attitudes against immigration.

Soini commented on the event later in his blog. "Today a sad incident, that no one wants to encounter, occurred to me." Soini said the matter was being investigated.

Several Finnish party leaders condemned the incident. "Political violence is unacceptable," Prime Minister Juha Sipila wrote in his tweet.

Jussi Halla-aho, the successor of Soini as chairman of the Finns Party, noted that "Finland is a country where politicians can walk freely on the streets" and "the parliament building is not surrounded with barbed wire". "Let us keep it that way," he said.

Soini is founder of the Finns Party. Since the breakup of the party in June 2017 Soini has represented the Blue Future, established by MPs who left the Finns Party. Soini is not running for reelection, but has said he participates in promotional events for his current party.

Political violence is rare in Finland. Someone with a knife got in front of then prime minister Jyrki Katainen in 2012, but then only talked to him.. His successor Alexander Stubb's house window was broken and some liquid was thrown on him.