A 12-year-old opened fire and injured three children of the same age on Tuesday morning at a school in Vantaa, north of Helsinki, and the suspect was arrested, according to police. The shootings occurred at a school in Vantaa which accommodates around 800 students on two sites, aged 7 to 15 years old.
Police announced they were dispatched to the scene shortly after 9 a.m. local time (8 a.m. Paris time) and the suspect was apprehended around 10 a.m. in Helsinki. She then indicated that the three injured and the suspect were all aged 12.
Arrest “peacefully”
“The arrest took place peacefully. The perpetrator was in possession of a firearm,” the police said on their website. A video, broadcast by the daily Iltalehti and presented as the arrest of the suspect, shows two police officers holding a person lying on his stomach to the ground.
Parents of children attending the school told Finnish media that the shooting happened in a classroom, saying they had spoken to their children on the phone. The students were kept in their classroom and parents flocked in large numbers to the school, where they were taken care of by police officers, according to public television Yle.
Crisis unit
A crisis unit bringing together staff from the school and the municipality has been set up, according to Finnish media. “I can only imagine the pain and worry many families are feeling right now,” Interior Minister Mari Rantanen responded on X, adding that the day had started “shockingly”.
The Nordic country experienced two similar tragedies in the early 2000s.