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A 12-year-old child has died and two others have been seriously wounded in a school shooting in Finland.
The suspect, a fellow pupil, ran off after the shooting but was later arrested, police said. He was holding a licensed handgun owned by a close relative and admitted carrying out the shooting in an initial interview, they added.
The shooting took place on Tuesday morning at the Viertola school in Vantaa, a suburb of the capital, Helsinki. The school has about 800 pupils from first to ninth grade and a staff of 90 people, according to the local municipality.
Police said the suspect and the victims were 12 years old.
“Together, we thought that as a society we would have learned from previous school shootings. Such a day should not have happened,” the national police chief, Seppo Kolehmainen, said at a press conference in Vantaa.
The Finnish prime minister, Petteri Orpo, said the age of the victims and the suspect made the tragedy “especially shocking”.
He added: “I would like to show my own and the government’s sympathy to the family and loved ones of the child who passed away. In addition, two children have been seriously injured. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, students and staff of Viertola school. It is important that they receive all possible support.”
Trying to reassure Finnish children, he said: “Today and in the coming days we need presence, care and comforting arms, words of comfort. And it is really important that this is talked about more widely in homes. I want to tell Finnish children and young schoolchildren that the Finnish authorities and school staff do everything every day to prevent something like this from happening.”
The Finnish interior minister, Mari Rantanen, posted on X: “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.”
Police said they were made aware of the shooting shortly after 9am local time, after which they warned bystanders to stay indoors and away from the area and not to open their doors to strangers.
The Finnish broadcaster Yle reported that parents at the school said the suspected shooter was a sixth-grade student there. Eastern Uusimaa police department has been contacted for comment.
Katri Kalske, a deputy city manager for education and training of the city of Vantaa, said she was deeply shocked by the incident and there had been no advance warning, telling Yle: “This came as a big surprise to everyone.”
She said she hoped the shooting would act as a wake-up call to society.
Previous school shootings in Finland have put a harsh focus on the country’s gun policy. In 2007, Pekka-Eric Auvinen shot and killed six students, a school nurse, the principal and himself using a handgun at Jokela high school near Helsinki.
In 2008, another student, Matti Saari, opened fire at a vocational school in Kauhajoki, 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 changed to 20 from 18.
There are more than 1.5m licensed firearms and about 430,000 licence holders in the nation of 5.6 million people, where hunting and target shooting are popular activities.
Sursa: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/02/finland-school-shooting-children-vantaa