Police in Oulu now suspect that the stabbing of a high school student in September was racially motivated.
Immediately after the stabbing, which occurred in broad daylight on Monday 9 September, police said they found no indication the attack was racially motivated.
The victim, who has a foreign background, was seriously injured in the attack but survived the attack after being rushed to a nearby hospital.
On Tuesday, police said that the 23-year-old suspect in the case had "some degree of longer-term hostile attitudes" towards foreigners.
"There were indications of this following the questioning of an external witness and an expert. For this reason the incident has been classified as a hate crime," a police press release issued on Tuesday stated.
It was previously reported the suspect had denied that the victim's foreign background was his motivation for carrying out the attack.
Police said on Tuesday that they have forwarded the case to the prosecutor, under the criminal heading of attempted manslaughter, for consideration of charges.
The suspect has been held in remand custody since 11 September.
Police have previously said that the case was not linked to two knife attacks that took place in June at Oulu's Valkea shopping mall.
The first incident involved a man who stabbed and injured a 12-year-old with a foreign background. The man suspected of that crime, 33-year-old far-right extremist Sebastian Lämsä, belonged to the Nordic Resistance Movement, a banned neo-Nazi group.
About a week later, a second stabbing at the mall, which injured a man with a foreign background, was thought to be a copycat attack.