Pupil, 12, held as one killed in shooting

A12-YEAR-OLD student opened fire at a secondary school in southern Finland yesterday, killing one student and seriously wounding two others, police said.

Heavily armed police cordoned off the lower secondary school – a large educational institution including lower and upper secondary schools, with a total of about 800 students – in the city of Vantaa, just outside the capital Helsinki, after receiving a call about a shooting incident at 9.08am local time.

Police said both the suspect and the victims were 12 years old. One of the students had died instantly after being shot, chief of police Ilkka Koskimaki from the Eastern Uusimaa Police Department told a news conference. The other two were seriously wounded, he said.

The weapon used in the shooting was a registered handgun that was licensed to a relative of the suspect, Koskimaki said.

The suspect was arrested in the Helsinki area later with a handgun in his possession, police said. He admitted to the shooting in an initial police hearing but there was no immediate word of the motive, police said, adding that the case is being investigated as a murder and two attempted murders.

Finnish president Alexander Stubb and prime minister Petteri Orpo offered condolences to the families of the victims in postings on Twitter/X with both saying they were shocked over the shooting.

Orpo said: “What makes it particularly shocking is the age of the victim and the suspect.

“I can assure you that this [shooting] will be carefully reviewed and conclusions will be drawn that this will not happen again.”