“Today, after 9:00 a.m., there was a shooting at the Viertola elementary school in Vantaa (..), in which a 6th-grade student of the school died. Two children were also seriously injured,” police official Ilkka Koskimäki told a press conference.
Police said they were dispatched to the scene shortly after 9:00 a.m. and the suspect was apprehended around 10:00 a.m. in Helsinki. She then stated that all the protagonists were 12 years old.
“The arrest took place peacefully. The perpetrator had a firearm with him,” the police said on their website.
Students confined to their classes
A video broadcast by the daily Iltalehti and presented as the arrest of the suspect shows two policemen holding a man lying on his stomach to the ground.
Parents of children attending the school told Finnish media that the shooting happened in a classroom, saying they had spoken to their children on the phone.
Students were kept in their classrooms and parents flocked to the school, where they were attended to by police, according to public broadcaster Yle.
Precedent in 2000
According to Finnish media, a crisis unit has been set up bringing together school and municipality employees.
“I can only imagine the pain and fear many families are feeling right now,” Interior Minister Mari Rantanen told X, adding that the day had started in a “shocking way”.
The Nordic country experienced two similar tragedies at the beginning of the 21st century.
In November 2007, an 18-year-old man opened fire at a school (middle and high school) in Jokel, about fifty kilometers north of the capital Helsinki, killing eight people: the principal, a nurse and six students. The attacker committed suicide after the attack.
A year later, in September 2008, there was a shooting at a vocational school in Kauhajoki (West), committed by 22-year-old Matti Juhani Saari, killing ten people. He also committed suicide shortly afterwards.