Police car lights are on at night.
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A 12-year-old shot and wounded three other 12-year-olds at a Finnish school on Tuesday and the suspect was detained peacefully, police said.
The victim was taken to hospital, a police spokesman told Reuters. One of the school’s buildings has been cordoned off by police. Parents were picking up their children from another school building hundreds of meters away.
Police said the arrest was peaceful and the suspect and weapon were in police custody. No details about the identity of the children or the condition of the victims were immediately released.
The shooting occurred at the Viertola school in Vantaa, a suburb of the capital Helsinki, which has about 800 students in grades one to nine and 90 staff, according to the local municipal government.
Vietola school principal Sari Laasila told Reuters that “the immediate danger has passed” but declined to comment further.
Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said on
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the shooting was deeply shocking.
“My heart goes out to the victims, their loved ones and other students and staff,” he told the X program.
Previous school shootings in Finland have put Finland’s gun policy under harsh scrutiny.
In 2007, Pekka-Erik Ovinen shot and killed six students, the school nurse, the principal and himself with a pistol at Jokla High School near Helsinki.
A year later, in 2008, another student, Matti Saari, opened fire at a vocational school in Kauhajoki, northwest Finland. He killed nine students and one male staff member before turning the gun on himself.
Finland tightened its gun legislation in 2010 and introduced proficiency tests for all gun license applicants. The age limit for applicants has also been changed from 18 to 20 years.
In this country of 5.6 million people, with more than 1.5 million licensed gun owners and about 430,000 license holders, hunting and target shooting are popular.
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