The suspect admitted during preliminary interrogation that he was the shooter.
Helsinki, Finland:
Flags in Finland will be flown at half-mast on Wednesday to mourn the death of a 12-year-old who opened fire at a school, killing a classmate and seriously injuring two others.
Flags will be lowered on all public buildings and institutions from 8:00 am (05:00 GMT), the interior ministry said on its website.
The ministry encourages the entire country to participate in the event.
On Tuesday morning, a 12-year-old boy opened fire at his school in Vantaa, Finland’s fourth-largest city.
The school has approximately 90 staff and 800 students aged 7 to 15 years.
Finnish TV channel MTV Uutiset reported that the boy was wearing a mask and noise-canceling headphones during the filming.
The 12-year-old child who was killed died on the spot. When the police arrived, the suspect had already fled the school.
They have launched an investigation into murder and attempted murder.
The suspected gunman was “calmly” arrested within an hour of the shooting and admitted during a preliminary interrogation that he was the shooter.
Police said there are no other suspects.
They said the weapon the suspect was carrying belonged to a relative.
‘deeply disturbing’
Detective Chief Inspector Marko Sarkka, who is leading the investigation, said in a statement on Tuesday that “police are investigating, inter alia, the motive for the act and the reasons for the incident.”
Sarkka added that the boy would not be jailed because he was under 15 years old and therefore could not be held criminally responsible.
Police also said a technical investigation of the crime scene at the school had begun and would continue on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said in a statement that the incident was “deeply disturbing”, adding that his thoughts were with the victims, their parents, other students and teachers.
“In the days ahead, we must care for children and young people, offer them words of comfort and show them that we care,” he said in a statement.
“They may be scared or have questions. It’s important that we talk about the incident at home.”
Finnish President Alexander Stubb posted on social media platform X that he was “shocked” by the shooting.
“I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family of the deceased student,” Stubb said.
“Take violence seriously”
“For years (we have been repeating) we need to take violence between children in society seriously,” Finland’s children’s rights ombudsman Elina Pekkarinen told Finnish news agency STT.
Violence, particularly against children under 15, has been increasing for years, she added.
There have been a number of horrific school attacks in Finland in recent decades.
In November 2007, an 18-year-old man opened fire at a secondary school in Jokla, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Helsinki, killing the principal, a nurse and six students before turning the gun on himself.
A year later, in September 2008, 22-year-old Matti Juhani Saari killed 11 people at a vocational school in the western town of Kauhajoki.
In October 2019, a college student killed a 23-year-old woman and injured nine other people at a vocational school in Kuopio.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
