A 12-year-old opened fire at a school north of Helsinki, Finland on Tuesday, killing one classmate and seriously wounding two other children.
Police say they are working to uncover the motive for the killing, which happened at a school in Vantaa, Finland’s fourth-largest city.
Ilkka Koskimaki, the chief of Eastern Uusimaa police department, said the shooting occurred at 9 am and the perpetrator was a sixth grader.
Police earlier said both the suspect and the wounded were 12-years-old and that they have launched an investigation into the murder and attempted murder.
The child who was killed died at the scene and the suspect had fled by the time police arrived.
The suspect was later arrested in a “calm manner” at about 10 am and admitted to being the shooter. There are no other suspects, police said.
The weapon the suspect was carrying belonged to a relative, according to police.
Considering the suspect’s young age, police said he would not be held in custody but instead be turned over to social services.
Parents of the students told reporters the shooting occurred in a classroom.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the incident was “deeply upsetting” and President Alexander Stubb said in a post to X that he was “shocked” by the event.
The country’s Minister of Interior said flags would be flown at half-mast at all government institutions.
Finland has a history of school attacks over recent decades.
An 18-year-old man opened fire at a secondary school in Jokela, north of Helsinki in 2007, killing the headmaster, a nurse, and six students before committing suicide.
In 2008, 22-year-old Matti Juhani Saari killed 11 people at a vocational school in the town of Kauhajoki.
A college student killed a 23-year-old woman and wounded nine others with a saber in the city of Kuopio in 2019.
