The 31-year-old man who stabbed a woman multiple times at a supermarket in northern Nicosia arrived in Cyprus last Thursday, the north’s ‘interior minister’ Dursun Oguz said on Tuesday.

“He came and went. He entered via the Republic of Turkey like a normal tourist. Then, this tragic incident happened,” he told the north’s public broadcaster BRT, explaining that the man had travelled to Cyprus on three previous occasions: in 2018, last year, and in February.

As such, he said, “the incident should be addressed from a national security perspective, beyond its personal dimension”. He then added that the Turkish Cypriot authorities are as such “making our assessments within this framework”.

Earlier in the day, Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman had said that “violence against women constitutes a loss of civilisation”.

“We need to move away from the normalisation and sensationalism, focusing on individual incidents and asking “who” and “why”, and instead focus on holistic policies to eliminate violence against women in particular, and all forms of violence in general,” he said, before adding that he was “saddened” by the incident.

Meanwhile, northern Nicosia’s Dr Burhan Nalbantoglu hospital’s chief physician Hasan Birtan told the north’s Tak news agency that the woman has been intubated and remains in a critical condition, and that “[her] life is still in danger”.

He said that she had sustained “multiple organ injuries” and “significant blood loss” as a result of the attack, adding that she is being treated at the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Additionally, he said that the woman’s attacker, who stabbed himself after the initial attack, is receiving treatment on a “regular ward” at the hospital and is in a stable condition.

The man has not yet been brought before a court due to his health condition.

The incident occurred inside the Metropol supermarket in the suburb of Taskinkoy shortly before midday on Monday, with the man first stabbing the woman, and then stabbing himself.