Finnish PM unhurt after knife attack thwarted

Finland's Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen arrives at a European Union leaders summit in Brussels October 19, 2012.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen was unhurt after a man tried to attack him with a knife on Monday, his aides said.

Katainen was campaigning in Turku, western Finland, when a man came up to him brandishing a knife, according to the daily Helsingin Sanomat's online edition.

Katainen's security guards stopped the man, and he was taken away by police in handcuffs, the paper said.

The man's motive was unknown, and the report only described him as a man with long hair.

Katainen, head of the National Coalition Party, later resumed greeting voters ahead of Sunday's municipal elections, aides said.

An opinion poll published by the the Ilta-Sanomat newspaper last Friday indicated Katainen's party would win the biggest share of votes, with the Social Democrats a close second. The anti-euro Finns Party is seen finishing fourth in percentage terms, behind the agrarian Centre Party.

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando and Terhi Kinnunen; Editing by Kevin Liffey)