FINLAND MOURNS CHILD KILLED IN SCHOOL SHOOTING
PM urges nation to be ‘present for the children’ as flags at public buildings lowered
FINLAND flew its flags at half-mast yesterday to mark the country’s mourning after a 12-year-old opened fire at a school, killing one classmate and seriously injuring two others.
All public buildings and institutions lowered their flags from 8am, the Interior Ministry said on its website.
The ministry encouraged the whole country to participate in the event. On Tuesday morning, a boy, 12, opened fire at his school in Vantaa, Finland’s fourth-largest city.
The school has around 90 staff members and 800 pupils aged 7 to 15.
According to Finnish television channel MTV Uutiset, the boy wore a mask and noise-cancelling headphones while carrying out the shooting.
The child who was killed, also aged 12, died at the scene, and the suspect had already fled the school by the time police arrived.
An investigation into murder
and attempted murder has been opened.
The suspect, who was carrying a gun, was arrested in a “calm manner” within an hour of the shooting and admitted to being the shooter in a preliminary interrogation.
There were no other suspects, police said.
They said the weapon the suspect was carrying belonged to a relative.
“The police are investigating the
motive for the act and the reasons for the incident,” detective chief Inspector Marko Sarkka said on Tuesday.
Sarkka added that the boy would not be incarcerated as he was under 15 and so could not be held criminally responsible.
Police also said a technical investigation of the crime scene had begun at the school, which would continue yesterday.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said
the incident was “deeply upsetting” and that his thoughts were with the victims, their parents, other pupils and teachers.
“In the coming days, we must be present for the children and young people, offer them words of comfort and show them that we care about them,” he said.
“They may be scared or have questions. It is important that we talk about the incident in our homes.”