The 12-year-old boy who shot and killed a fellow sixth-grader and severely injured two others at a school in Finland has explained that he was a target of bullying, and this was the motive for his attack, police said on Wednesday.
\nThe boy on Tuesday brought a relative\u2019s revolver to the Viertola school near Helsinki and shot the three other 12-year-olds and threatened several others. He had transferred to the school at the beginning of 2024, investigators said.
\nFlags flew at half-mast across the country on Wednesday as it mourned the boy\u2019s death. The two other pupils remained in hospital.
\n\u201cWe just found out today that there was this bullying behind the tragedy,\u201d lead investigator Detective Chief Inspector Marko Sarkka told Reuters.
\nThe preliminary police probe had confirmed that the boy was a target of bullying, investigators said in a separate statement. Sarkka declined to elaborate.
\nPolice have not said whether the attacker sought to target any specific individuals.
\nFinland has seen a rising level of bullying in schools, with 8.6% of pupils who are now around 12 years old saying they had been targeted at least once a week, up from 7.2% in 2019, according to a 2023 study by public health institute THL.
\nThe permit for the revolver used in Wednesday\u2019s attack belonged to a relative of the suspect, according to police. It was not immediately clear how the shooter had got hold of the weapon.
\n\u201cThis matter is being investigated by the police as a separate firearms offence,\u201d investigators said in a statement.
\n(Reuters)gun. bullying, school shooting, Finland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A 12-year-old boy in Finland shot and killed a fellow sixth-grader and injured two others at a school near Helsinki. The boy explained that he was a target of bullying, which was the motive for his attack. He brought a relative’s revolver to the school and threatened other students. Flags flew at half-mast as the country mourned the victim’s death. Finland has seen a rise in bullying in schools, with 8.6% of pupils around 12 years old reporting being targeted at least once a week. The revolver used in the attack belonged to a relative of the suspect, and police are investigating how the boy obtained the weapon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3464,383,4002,4911,1240,2692,4640,210,156,4638,2218,184,433,4641,133,223,1827,3378,2140,18],"class_list":["post-6770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-12-year-old","tag-attack","tag-boy","tag-bullying","tag-clear","tag-death","tag-finland","tag-health","tag-hospital","tag-injured","tag-investigators","tag-police","tag-school","tag-school-shooting","tag-schools","tag-shooting","tag-statement","tag-students","tag-suspect","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n