US State Attacker Was 'Somali Refugee'

Abdul Razak Ali Artan, 18 - Kevin Stankiewicz/TheLantern.com via AP

A man who injured 11 people, one critically, in a rampage at Ohio State University was of Somali descent and a student on campus, say US officials.

BBC News report continues:

Abdul Razak Ali Artan, 18, rammed his car into a group of pedestrians at the college then got out and began stabbing people before police shot him dead.

Police Chief Kim Jacobs said they were investigating whether Monday morning's incident was a terrorist attack.

The FBI joined the inquiry at the 60,000-student campus in Columbus.

Artan studied logistics management in the college of Business at Ohio State, reports the Columbus Dispatch.  

He revealed he was scared of praying in public because of "everything going on in the media" just three months before his death.

Artan gave an interview to university newspaper The Lantern on his first day at Ohio State on 23 August, telling reporter Kevin Stankiewicz he was concerned about fellow students reaction.

“I wanted to pray in the open, but I was scared with everything going on in the media

I'm a Muslim, it's not what the media portrays me to be. If people look at me, a Muslim praying, I don't know what they're going to think, what's going to happen

“But, I don't blame them. It's the media that put that picture in their heads so they're just going to have it and it, it's going to make them feel uncomfortable."