A 12-year-old child has been killed and two others seriously wounded in a shooting at a school in Finland, police say, with a fellow 12-year-old pupil suspected of the attack being taken into custody.
A building at the school outside the Finnish capital was cordoned off by police on Tuesday, with parents picking up their children from another school building hundreds of metres away.
The suspect was arrested peacefully away from the school in the suburb of Siltamaki, where police also recovered the weapon. There were no other suspects for now, police said.
They provided no details of the identity of the suspect or victims, apart from saying they were all 12-year-old Finns and pupils at the school.
The two survivors were being treated for serious injuries, the Helsinki regional hospital district said in a statement, without providing details.
The suspect admitted in a preliminary interview to having carried out the attack, police said, adding that the offences would be investigated as murder and attempted murder.
No-one has yet spoken on the suspect’s behalf. They will be put in the care of social services because a child cannot be remanded in custody, police said.
Police said the motive for the shooting was not clear, and the permit for the handgun belonged to a relative of the suspect.
Unverified video circulating on social media showed two police kneeling at the side of the suspected shooter, who was lying face down on a sidewalk.
The shooting took place at the Viertola school in Vantaa, a suburb of Helsinki, which has around 800 pupils from first to ninth grade and a staff of 90, according to the municipality.
Anja Hietamies, the mother of an 11-year-old pupil, told the Reuters news agency she received a message from her daughter after the shooting.
“She said they were in a dark, locked classroom, not allowed to speak on the phone but could send messages,” Hietamies said, adding her daughter was scared.
Finninsh Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said on X: “The day started in a horrifying way … I can only imagine the pain and worry that many families are experiencing at the moment. The suspected perpetrator has been caught.”
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the shooting was deeply shocking.
“My thoughts are with the victims, their loved ones and the other students and staff,” he said.
Previous school shootings in Finland have put a harsh focus on Finland’s gun policy.
In 2007, Pekka-Eric Auvinen shot and killed six students, the school nurse, the principal, and himself using a handgun at Jokela High School, near Helsinki.
A year later, in 2008, Matti Saari, another student, opened fire at a vocational school in Kauhajoki, located in north-west Finland. He killed nine students and one male staff member before turning the gun on himself.
Finland tightened its gun legislation in 2010, introducing an aptitude test for all firearms licence applicants. The minimum age for applicants was also raised from 18 to 20.
There are more than 1.5 million licensed firearms and about 430,000 licence-holders in the nation of 5.6 million people, where hunting and target shooting are popular.
Reuters