The vigilantes' recent video, in which they claimed Finland to be overrun by "sex tourists" has arrived amidst a grooming gang scandal which has implicated immigrants and asylum-seekers from the Middle East.

Axar.az reports citing Sputnik that, the Finnish police and the National Prosecutor General's Office are investigating whether the new Soldiers of Odin video, in which they declare a hunt for rapists and paedophiles, constitutes hate speech and instigation to violence, the Finnish daily newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet reported.

In the video, which is provided with English and Arabic subtitles, the group claims that it has made false profiles in social media, posing as young girls. With the help of the profiles, the group seeks to reveal men in search of sexual contact with young girls on the web.

The video, which has since been deleted from both Facebook and Vimeo, shows a group of masked men armed with bats and chains march onwards to the camera amid winter darkness, accompanied by heavy metal music. The speaker of the group then claims Finland has been invaded by "sex tourists". As the authorities "do nothing", he claims, the people themselves have to protect their children. The Soldiers of Odin also claimed that half of the sexual propositions to underage girls came from Arabs. However, the group stressed that the hunt is open for "domestic paedophiles and rapists of all colours".

In the Scandinavian press, the Soldiers of Odin are often portrayed as neo-Nazis, which the group itself and its flanks in various countries vehemently deny. Some of its members, including founder Mika Ranta, have been convicted of abuse.

At present, several men with an immigrant background are being investigated for sex crimes involving girls as young as 10 committed in the northern Finnish town of Oulu, as well as the capital city. All of the suspects are either migrants or asylum seekers. The grooming gang scandal was sternly condemned by the country's top-ranking officials, including President Sauli Niinistö, who called it "unbearable".