That was quick: ISIS wing claims responsibility for Minnesota mall attack

Inside Job?

(CNN) The man who stabbed at least eight people at a Minnesota mall Saturday (Sept 17) before being shot dead by an off-duty police officer was a "soldier of the Islamic state," according to an ISIS-linked news agency.

The statement posted online Sunday by the Amaq agency follows a pattern of ISIS-related media claiming responsibility for what appear to be the acts of individuals across Europe in the past few months.

CNN cannot independently confirm this latest claim.

"We still don't have anything substantive that would suggest anything more than what we know already, which is this was a lone attacker," St. Cloud Police Chief William Blair Anderson told CNN's Jake Tapper Sunday. "And right now, we're trying to get to the bottom of his motivations."

Police and witnesses said the man, wearing a private security company uniform, entered Crossroads Mall on Saturday night around 8 p.m. ET, made a reference to Allah and asked at least one person if they were Muslim before he attacked.

Seven of the wounded were treated and released, while one victim remains hospitalized, Chief Anderson said. Police are trying to confirm if a ninth victim was transported to a hospital outside the city, Anderson said.

Ashley Bayne, an employee of JCPenney at the mall, was visiting a coworker at the time of the incident.

"All of sudden chaos just broke out," she told CNN's Nick Valencia on Sunday. "There was a bunch of people running into the JCPenney mall entrance, and they were just screaming that someone was going around the mall stabbing people, and that there was blood everywhere. It was just honestly a really scary experience."

Bayne said she ran out to the parking lot and took off in her car.

The stabbings occurred in multiple locations inside the mall, including the common area and in several stores. The mall has security teams on site but they are not armed.

Shortly after, an off-duty officer confronted the attacker.

"The individual we believe to be responsible for the victim's stab wounds is currently deceased inside the mall," police said early Sunday.