Viertola school shooting: Finland mourns after boy killed

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Flags have been flying at half-mast across Finland

Flags have been flying at half-mast across Finland after a boy was killed and two girls seriously wounded in a shooting at a school on Tuesday.

The shooting took place in a classroom at Viertola school in Vantaa, to the north of the capital, Helsinki.

Police said all three victims were 12 and that a suspect, also aged 12, had fled after the shooting but was later detained.

One of the wounded girls has dual Finnish-Kosovan nationality.

All public buildings lowered their flags from 08:00 (05:00 GMT) on Wednesday to mark a day of mourning, the interior ministry said.

According Finnish TV channel MTV Uutiset, the boy wore a mask and noise-cancelling headphones while carrying out the shooting.

He ran off as soon as police arrived and was eventually detained "in a calm manner" in the northern Siltamaki district of Helsinki.

Police have opened an investigation into murder and attempted murder. In a statement they said both wounded girls were still in hospital but gave no details of their condition.

They said they were looking into a possible motive but would not yet be releasing details. Public broadcaster YLE reported that the boy had been the victim of bullying.

"There is a lot of different, and partly incorrect, information about what happened in the different channels of social media. The police still want to remind you that spreading incorrect information on social media is a crime," the police statement said.

Viertola school has 800 students aged seven to 16 of both primary and middle-school age on two separate sites, with some 90 staff.

The school was open on Wednesday, but Katri Kalske, the deputy mayor of Vantaa, said that it would close earlier than usual.

Extensive support has been offered to pupils and staff, and that the shooting will be discussed in all schools in the city in an "age-appropriate manner", she told the AFP news agency.

Children under the age of 15 are not criminally liable in Finland, so the suspect has not been remanded in custody and will be placed in the care of social services after further questioning.

Gun ownership is widespread in Finland and people aged over 18 considered fit to own a firearm can apply for a licence. Children over 15 can also have licences to use other people's firearms.

The suspect is understood to have used a revolver-type handgun licensed to a close relative, and under Finnish law permits for revolvers are only given to people over 20.

Elina Pekkarinen, Finland's Children's Rights Ombudsman, told Finnish news agency STT, that "for years (we have been repeating) that we need to take violence between children in society seriously".

Acts of violence, particularly amongst children under 15 years old, have been on the rise for several years, she added.

Finland is widely known as a country of hunters and gun enthusiasts and has 430,000 licensed gun owners in a population of 5.6 million, according to government statistics. There is no limit to the number of guns that can be owned and the interior ministry says more than 1.5 million are in circulation.