12-year-old boy kills a classmate and wounds two with a firearm

A 12-year-old boy was killed and two others were seriously injured on Tuesday when a classmate opened fire at a primary school on the outskirts of Finland’s capital, Helsinki, police said.

“Today, after 09:00 p.m. (local time), a shooting occurred at a school (…) in which a sixth-grade student at the school died,” Ilkka Koskimaki, police chief of the school, said at a press conference. zone.

He added that two other minors were “seriously injured.”

The shooting took place at a primary school in the city of Vantaa, which has about 800 students, divided into two centers, from 7 to 15 years old, according to its website.

Police arrived at the establishment shortly after the shooting and the suspect was arrested an hour later in Helsinki.

«The arrest was made in calm. The suspect was carrying a weapon,” the police indicated on their website.

A video, broadcast by the newspaper Iltalehti and presented as the moment of the suspect’s arrest, shows two police officers holding a person lying face down.

Parents of children attending the school told Finnish media that the shooting occurred in a classroom, and said they had spoken to their children on the phone.

The children were kept in the classrooms and numerous parents went to the school, where they were treated by the police, according to public television Yle.

A crisis cabinet was launched with educational and City Council staff, according to Finnish media.

Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said in a message on the social network X that the day had started in a “dreadful way.”

“I can only imagine the pain and worry that many families are experiencing right now,” he added.

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