HELSINKI – A 12-year-old was killed and two others were wounded after a student opened fire at a primary school in Finland early on April 2. The suspect, also 12, was later apprehended, Finnish police said.
The victims were taken to hospital, a police spokesman told Reuters. No further details were immediately available.
The shooting took place at the Viertola school in Vantaa, a suburb of the capital Helsinki, which has around 800 students from first to ninth grade and a staff of some 90 people.
“The day started in a horrifying way. There has been a shooting incident at the Viertola school in Vantaa. I can only imagine the pain and worry that many families are experiencing at the moment. The suspected perpetrator has been caught,” Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said on social media platform X.
A building at the school was cordoned off by police. Parents, meanwhile, were picking up their children from another school building hundreds of metres away.
Ms Anja Hietamies, the mother of an 11-year-old pupil, told Reuters she had 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,” she said.
The arrest happened peacefully in the suburb of Siltamaki, away from the school, police said. Both the suspect and the weapon were now in police custody. There were no other suspects for now.
Video circulating on social media and unverified by Reuters showed two police officers kneeling at the side of the suspected shooter, who was lying face down on a sidewalk.
No details about the identities of the children or the condition of the two surviving victims were immediately released.
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 on X.
Previous school shootings in Finland have put 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 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 age limit for applicants was also changed to 20 from 18.
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 activities. REUTERS
