12-Year-Old Held After School Shooting in Finland. What to Know

A 12-year-old child has died and two others are seriously wounded after a suspect of the same age opened fire on classmates at a school in Finland on Tuesday.

The shooting took place inside a classroom at the Viertola school in Vantaa, Finland’s fourth largest city, located to the north of the capital Helsinki. Officers were called to the incident just after 9 a.m. local time. 

The injured children were rushed to hospital, according to Finnish police. Further details of their injuries have not been shared publicly.

The school is situated across two sites in Liljatie and Jokiranta, with the incident taking place at the Jokiranta campus. The school hosts 90 staff and 800 students from first to ninth grade, aged from seven to 16, according to BBC reports. Children had returned to classes on Tuesday following the long Easter weekend. 

Police said the suspect fled the scene after the shooting, but was later detained "in a calm manner" in an area of Helsinki called Siltakylantie, a 50-minute walk away from the campus. Officials also said they had removed the firearm from the suspect. 

"The immediate danger is over," the school's principal Sari Laasila said, but authorities have urged locals to remain indoors. Vantaa—Finland’s fourth largest city—is home to around 240,000 residents.

"The day started in a horrifying way. There has been a shooting incident at the Viertola school in Vantaa. I can only imagine the pain and worry that many families are experiencing at the moment. The suspected perpetrator has been caught," Finland’s interior minister Mari Rantanen posted on the social media platform X.

Finland’s history of fatal school shootings led the country to reform its gun laws in 2010. 

In 2007, a teenager named Pekka-Eric Auvinen carried out a shooting at Jokela high school, killing six students, a nurse, and the principal, before killing himself with the handgun. 

In a similar attack in 2008, student Matti Saari, shot nine students and one staff member at a  vocational school in Kauhajoki, in Northwest Finland. Saari also turned the gun on himself. 

In response, the Nordic country raised the age limit for firearm purchase applicants from 18 to 20, and introduced an aptitude test. There are currently 1.5 million licensed firearms in circulation and about 430,000 license holders in Finland, and permits are granted by local police departments.