Circumstances of the tragedy, profile of the suspect, victims… what we know about the shooting in Finland caused by a 12-year-old child

The police are now investigating the motive and reasons behind the incident. MAXPPP – KIMMO BRANDT

A twelve-year-old opened fire and killed a child at his school in Vantaa, north of the Finnish capital Helsinki, this Tuesday April 2, seriously injuring two other students before being arrested.

What happened?

The tragedy occurred this Tuesday, April 2, in the morning, shortly after 9 a.m.: a shooting broke out at Viertola elementary school de Vantaa, a public school which welcomes 800 students aged 7 to 15 in the north of the Finnish capital Helskini.

During the shooting, a 6th grade student at the school was shot. The child was killed instantly, reports a police official during a press conference held early in the afternoon, while two others were also seriously injured.

Parents of children attending the school told Finnish media that the shooting occurred in a classroom, saying they had spoken to their children on the phone. &quot ;My daughter told me that they were in a locked room, plunged into darkness. They were not allowed to make calls but could send messages, reported the mother of an 11-year-old student interviewed by Reuters.

What do we know about the suspect?

The arrest of the young suspect, a 12-year-old child attending the same school, "took place peacefully" and he was in possession of a firearm, according to the police.

The weapon belongs to a relative of the perpetrator and an investigation was opened for murder and attempted murder.

This young person will not be incarcerated because he is under 15 years old and cannot therefore be found criminally responsible, said Markku Särkkä, another police official. He will be handed over to social services after his interrogation which took place today.

Police are now investigating the motive and reasons behind the incident.

Precedents in the 2000s

The Nordic country experienced two similar tragedies in the early 2000s.

In November 2007, an 18-year-old man opened fire in a school (middle and high school) in Jokela, about fifty kilometers north of the capital Helsinki, killing eight people  nbsp;: the director, 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 Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, which points to mental health problems as the main reason behind this flail.