FINLAND, Apr 3 : A 12-year-old opened fire Tuesday at a school north of the Finnish capital Helsinki, killing a classmate and seriously injuring two other children, with police saying they were still investigating the motive and lead-up to the incident.
The Viertola school in Vantaa, Finland’s fourth-largest city, has around 90 staff and 800 pupils in grades one to nine, or aged seven to 15.
“Today, after 9:00 am, a shooting incident took place at a school… in which a sixth grader, a student of the school, died,” Chief of the Eastern Uusimaa Police Department Ilkka Koskimaki told a press conference Tuesday.
Police had earlier said that both the suspect and the injured were 12 years old and have opened an investigation into murder and attempted murder.
In an afternoon update, police said they had been able to conduct an interview with the young suspect.
“The police are investigating, among other things, the motive for the act and the reasons for the incident,” Detective Chief Inspector Marko Sarkka, who is leading the investigation, said in a statement, adding that more information would be shared today.
Meanwhile a technical investigation of the crime scene had begun at the school, which would continue today.
The suspect, who was carrying a gun, was arrested in a “calm manner” around 10 am and had admitted being the shooter in a preliminary interrogation.-TVS
