Finland school shooting: Three children aged 12 wounded; suspect detained

Finland police, on Tuesday, said that three children aged 12 have been wounded in a school shooting incident in the Finnish city Vantaa. Details about the extent of the three children’s injuries are yet to be disclosed.

According to a report in the BBC, police responded to the incident at Viertola school before 09:00 (06:00 GMT) on Tuesday and urged local residents to remain indoors.

Public broadcaster YLE reported that the school has 800 students and 90 staff. Children were told to stay inside their classrooms after the attack.

Police said the suspect, also aged 12, had fled the scene but was later detained “in a calm manner” on the other side of a local river in a district of northern Helsinki.

The authorities confiscated a firearm that was found on the child.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo described the shooting as profoundly upsetting and said his thoughts were with the victims and their families as well as everyone at the school.

The school has students aged seven to 15 of both primary and middle-school age on two separate sites.

Vantaa is Finland’s fourth biggest city with some 240,000 residents.

Finland saw two deadly school shootings in a matter of months in 2007 and 2008, prompting the tightening of gun laws.

Finland is renowned as a nation with a strong culture of hunting and gun enthusiasts, boasting 430,000 licensed gun owners among its population of 5.5 million, as per government data. There’s no restriction on the number of firearms one can possess, with the interior ministry reporting over 1.5 million guns in circulation.

In 2007, an 18-year-old student tragically killed seven pupils and his head teacher in Tuusula. The following year, another student took the lives of nine pupils and a teacher in Kauhajoki.

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