Three 12-year-old children were shot and wounded at a school in Finland on Tuesday and the suspect, also 12, was taken into custody, police said.
\nThe victims were taken to hospital, a police spokesperson told Reuters. No further details were immediately available.
\nThe shooting took place at the Viertola school in Vantaa, a suburb of the capital Helsinki, which has around 800 pupils from first to ninth grade and a staff of 90 people, according to the local municipality.
\n\u201cThe immediate danger is over,\u201d the Viertola school\u2019s principal Sari Laasila told Reuters, declining to comment further on the incident.
\n\u201cThe 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,\u201d Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said on X.
\nPrevious school shootings in Finland have put a harsh focus on Finland\u2019s gun policy.
\nIn 2007, Pekka-Eric Auvinen shot and killed six students, the school nurse, the principal, and himself using a handgun at Jokela High School, near Helsinki.
\nA year later, in 2008, Matti Saari, another student, opened fire at a vocational school in Kauhajoki, located in northwest Finland. He killed nine students and one male staff member before turning the gun on himself.
\nFinland tightened its gun legislation in 2010, introducing an aptitude test for all firearms licence applicants. The age limit for applicants was also changed to 20 from 18.
\nThere are more than 1.5 million licensed firearms and about 430,000 licence holders in the nation of 5.6 million people, where hunting and target shooting are popular activities.
\n(Reuters)school shooting. school shooting, Finland, gun policy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three 12-year-old children were shot and wounded at a school in Finland, with the suspect also being 12 years old. The shooting took place at the Viertola school in Vantaa, a suburb of Helsinki. The victims were taken to the hospital, and the suspect was taken into custody. Finland has had previous school shootings, leading to stricter gun legislation in 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1521,3464,862,279,3228,4640,118,985,4642,156,2685,148,184,433,4641,223,3378,2140,2687,18],"class_list":["post-6514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-1521","tag-12-year-old","tag-age","tag-comment","tag-custody","tag-finland","tag-fire","tag-gun","tag-gun-policy","tag-hospital","tag-legislation","tag-local","tag-police","tag-school","tag-school-shooting","tag-shooting","tag-students","tag-suspect","tag-victims","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n