By JARI TANNER (Associated Press)
HELSINKI — A 12-year-old student used a gun to shoot at a secondary school in southern Finland on Tuesday morning, resulting in the death of one person and serious injuries to two other students, as reported by the police. The suspect was later caught.
Heavily armed police surrounded the Viertola school — a large education institution with about 800 students in the city of Vantaa, just outside the capital, Helsinki, after they were informed about a shooting incident at 09:08 a.m.
According to the police, both the suspect and the victims were also 12 years old.
Chief of Police Ilkka Koskimäki from the Eastern Uusimaa Police Department informed that one of the students died immediately after being shot, and the other two were seriously wounded.
Detective Inspector Kimmo Hyvärinen stated that the gun used in the shooting was a licensed handgun belonging to a relative of the suspect.
The police reported that the suspect was apprehended in the Helsinki area less than an hour after the shooting and was found carrying a handgun. The suspect confessed to the shooting during the initial police interrogation, but the motive is not yet known. The case is being investigated as a murder and two attempted murders.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo expressed sympathy for the victims' families in their posts on X, both stating that they were shocked by the shooting.
“What is particularly shocking is the age of the victim and the suspect,” commented Orpo during a news conference. “I can assure you that this (shooting) will be carefully reviewed, and measures will be taken to prevent this from happening again.”
In Finland, the minimum age for being held criminally responsible is 15 years, so the suspect cannot be formally arrested. A suspect under 15 can only be questioned by the police and then handed over to the country's child welfare authorities.
In the past few decades, Finland has experienced two major deadly school shootings.
In November 2007, an 18-year-old student armed with a semi-automatic pistol attacked the Jokela high school in Tuusula, southern Finland, and killed nine people. He was later found dead with self-inflicted wounds.
Less than a year later, in September 2008, a 22-year-old student used a semi-automatic pistol to kill 10 people at a vocational college in Kauhajoki, southwestern Finland, before taking his own life.
In the Nordic country of 5.6 million, there are more than 1.5 million licensed firearms and about 430,000 license holders, according to the Finnish Interior Ministry. Hunting and gun ownership are deeply rooted traditions in the sparsely populated northern European country.
Local police departments are responsible for granting permits for ordinary firearms.
In the wake of the school shootings in 2007 and 2008, Finland strengthened its gun laws by increasing the minimum age for owning firearms and empowering the police to conduct more thorough background checks on individuals applying for a gun license.
The Interior Ministry announced that Finland will honor the victims of the school shooting on Wednesday by having all state agencies and institutions lower the national flag to halfway. The ministry also encouraged private households to participate in the commemoration.
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