What we know about the school shootings in Finland, which left one dead and two seriously injured

A 12-year-old child, suspected of being the perpetrator of the shooting, was arrested.

The suspect is 12 years old. Shootings at a school Vantaa, north of Helsinki (Finland), left one dead and two seriously injured on Tuesday April 2, police announced. The young student was arrested.

A crisis unit bringing together staff from the school and the municipality has been set up, according to Finnish media. Here is what we know, at this stage, about the situation.

Shooting in a class of a school of 800 students

The shootings occurred in a classroom at Viertola school in Vantaa. It welcomes around 800 students, aged 7 to 15, on two sites. Local police said they were dispatched to the scene shortly after 9 a.m. (8 a.m. in Paris). “Today, after 9 a.m., a shooting took place at Viertola Elementary School in Vantaa (…) during which a 6th grade student of the school died. Two children were also seriously injured”an official said at a press conference.

A parent told AFP that he had been in contact with his daughter while classes were confined. “She was able to send me WhatsApp messages, saying that they were sitting on the floor and waiting for instructions from the teachers”he reported.

12-year-old suspect arrested in Helsinki an hour later

The suspect was apprehended an hour later in Helsinki. “The arrest took place peacefully. The author was in possession of a firearm”, commented the police. A video, broadcast by the daily Iltalehti and presented as that of the arrest, shows two police officers holding a person lying on his stomach to the ground.

According to law enforcement, the 12-year-old boy has no criminal record. Police also said they had no knowledge of any planning for the school shooting.

An investigation was opened for murder and attempted murder. This young boy will not be incarcerated because he is under 15 years old, said another police official. He will be handed over to social services after his interrogation. In Finland, a child under 15 is not criminally responsible, specifies Iltalehti.

A crisis unit set up in the school

The students were kept in their classroom and parents flocked to the school in large numbers, reports Yle public television. Shortly after noon, the police began to let parents in to find their children, according to an AFP correspondent on site. A crisis unit bringing together staff from the school and the municipality has been set up, according to Finnish media.

“I can only imagine the pain and worry many families are feeling right now”reacted the Minister of the Interior, Mari Rantanen, on the social networkadding that the day had started “shockingly”.

The Prime Minister, Petteri Orpo, was also said on “deeply shocked” by this event, adding that his thoughts were with the victims, their parents, other students and teachers.

Two precedents from the early 2000s

The Nordic country experienced two similar tragedies in the early 2000s. In November 2007, an 18-year-old young man opened fire in a school (middle and high school) in Jokela, about fifty kilometers north of the capital Helsinki , killing eight people, the principal, the nurse and six students. The assailant committed suicide after the attack.

A year later, in September 2008, a shooting took place in a vocational school in Kauhajoki (west), perpetrated by Matti Juhani Saari, 22, killing ten people. He also committed suicide shortly after. Since then, hundreds of schools have been threatened with similar acts, according to the magazine Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention which points to mental health problems as the main reason behind this scourge.