A 12-year-old yesterday opened fire at a school north of the Finnish capital, Helsinki, killing a fellow student and seriously injuring two others before being taken into custody, police said.
The Viertola school in Vantaa, Finland’s fourth-largest city, has about 90 staff and 800 pupils in grades one to nine, or aged seven to 15.
“Today, after 9am, a shooting incident took place at a school ... in which a sixth grader, a student of the school, died,” Ilkka Koskimaki, chief of the Eastern Uusimaa police department, told a press conference, adding that two others were “seriously injured.”
Photo: AFP
Police had earlier said that both the suspect and the injured were 12 years old. They have opened an investigation into murder and attempted murder.
The child who was killed died at the scene, and the suspect had already left the school by the time police arrived.
The suspect, who was carrying a gun, was arrested in a “calm manner” at about 10am and admitted to being the shooter in a preliminary interrogation.
Iltalehti newspaper published a video filmed from a passing car showing two police officers pinning down a child by the side of a road in a residential area.
Owing to the suspect’s young age, police said the child would not be held in custody, but would be turned over to social services after being interviewed.
Ayan Hanif, a student at the school, said that he and his classmates had just gone outside for a physical excercise class when teachers told them to hurry back inside and sit on the floor.
“I think I heard one or two gunshots, but I’m not sure,” the 13-year-old said.
Another witness told Iltalehti that shots had echoed across the schoolyard.
“At first I didn’t understand it was a weapon. Then a terrible scream could be heard and children ran across the yard,” the witness said.
A large number of police officers, some carrying body armor and rifles had gathered outside the school.
Parents of the students told journalists the shooting took place in a classroom, but police did not specify any details about the shootings during a press conference.
The weapon the suspect was carrying belonged to a relative and there were no other suspects, police said.
Concerned parents arrived shortly after news of the shooting broke and waited outside the cordoned off school in near freezing temperatures.
“My daughter is still there in the school building and we’re waiting for the children to come out,” Janne Savolainen said.
Savolainen added that it was a “huge surprise” that the shooting had occurred at the school.
“We are talking about an elementary school so they’re small children,” he said.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb wrote on X that he was “shocked” by the event.
“I would like to express my deepest condolences to the families of the deceased student,” Stubb said.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said he was “deeply shocked” and his thoughts were with the victims, their relatives and the other students and staff.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS