By JARI TANNER (Associated Press)
HELSINKI (AP) — A 12-year-old student shot and killed one person and seriously injured two others at a secondary school in southern Finland on Tuesday morning. The police caught the suspect later.
Police closed off the Viertola school — a large educational institution with about 800 students in the city of Vantaa, just outside the capital, Helsinki, after they got a call about a shooting incident at 09:08 a.m.
Both the suspect and the victims were 12 years old, according to the police.
One student died immediately after being shot, Chief of Police Ilkka Koskimäki from the Eastern Uusimaa Police Department said during a news conference. The other two were seriously injured, he said.
The gun used in the shooting was a registered handgun licensed to the suspect’s relative, Detective Inspector Kimmo Hyvärinen said.
The police arrested the suspect less than one hour after the shooting in the Helsinki area. The suspect had a handgun with him and confessed to the shooting in the initial police hearing. The police said the motive is not known yet, and they are investigating the case as a murder and two attempted murders.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo expressed their sympathies to the families of the victims in their postings, saying they were shocked over the shooting.
“It’s especially shocking because of the ages of the victim and the suspect,” Orpo said during a news conference. “I can assure you that this (shooting) will be carefully reviewed, and steps will be taken to prevent it from happening again.”
In Finland, the minimum age for criminal liability is 15 years, so the suspect cannot be formally arrested. A suspect younger than 15 can only be interviewed by the police and then handed over to Finland’s child welfare authorities.
In the last few decades, Finland has experienced two major deadly school shootings.
In November 2007, an 18-year-old student armed with a semi-automatic pistol opened fire at the Jokela high 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 shot and killed 10 people with a semi-automatic pistol at a vocational college in Kauhajoki, southwestern Finland, before shooting himself to death.
In Finland, a country with 5.6 million people, there are over 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 this sparsely-populated northern European country.
Local police departments are responsible for granting permits for regular firearms.
After the school shootings in 2007 and 2008, Finland tightened its gun laws by increasing the minimum age for firearms ownership and giving the police more authority to conduct background checks on individuals applying for a gun license.
Finland's Interior Ministry announced that the country will honor the victims of the school shooting on Wednesday by having all state agencies and institutions lower the national flag to half staff. The ministry also encouraged private households to take part in the commemoration.
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