A 12-year-old boy shot and killed a classmate and injured two others at a high school in the South Finland, according to the police. The suspect was later arrested.
Heavily armed police cordoned off the school, a large educational institution that includes middle and high school classes around 800 students, in the city of Vantaajust outside the capital Helsinki, after receiving a call about a shooting at 9:08 in the morning.
Police said both the suspect and victims were 12 years old.
One of the injured children died instantly. and the other two were seriously injured, East Uusima police chief Ilkka Koskimäki said at a news conference.
The weapon used was a pistolregistered to a family member of the suspect, he said.
The suspect farrested later on Tuesday in the Helsinki region with a gun in his possession, they added. He admitted to the shooting during an initial police interview, although his motive was not initially disclosed, according to police. The case was being investigated as a homicide and two attempted homicides.
Police officers at the scene of a school shooting in Vantaa, Finland. Photo: EFEFinnish President Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo expressed their condolences to the victims’ families in posts on X, and both said they were shocked by what had happened.
“What makes it particularly shocking is theage of the victim and suspectOrpo said at a news conference later Tuesday. “I can assure you that this will be carefully analyzed and conclusions drawn so that this does not happen again.”
THE minimum age of legal liability in Finland are i 15 years, so the suspect cannot be formally arrested. A suspect under the age of 15 can only give a statement to the police, after which he will be handed over to the Finnish child protection authorities.
A 12-year-old boy killed a classmate in Finland. Photo: EFEFinland has been the site of two major school shootings in recent decades.
In November 2007, an 18-year-old student armed with a semi-automatic pistol opened fire on the campus of Jokela Secondary School in Tuusula, southern Finland, killing nine people. He was found dead with self-inflicted wounds.
Less than a year later, in September 2008, a 22-year-old student killed 10 people with a semi-automatic pistol at a vocational school in Kauhajoki, southwestern Finland, before committing suicide.
According to the Finnish Ministry of the Interior, there are more than 1.5 million registered firearms and around 430,000 license holders in the Nordic nation of 5.6 million people. Hunting and gun ownership are deeply rooted traditions in this sparsely populated northern European country.
Responsibility for licensing ordinary firearms lies with the local police force.
After the school shootings of 2007 and 2008, Finland has tightened gun laws by raising the minimum age to own a gun and give police more powers to carry out background checks on people applying for a licence.
Source: Clarin
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