Two other children seriously injured in incident in Helsinki suburb described by minister as ‘horrifying’

A 12-year-old child has died and two others have been seriously wounded in a school shooting in Finland.

The suspect, a fellow pupil, ran off after the shooting but was later arrested, police said. He was holding a licensed handgun owned by a close relative and admitted carrying out the shooting in an initial interview, they added.

The shooting took place on Tuesday morning at the Viertola school in Vantaa, a suburb of the capital, Helsinki. The school has about 800 pupils from first to ninth grade and a staff of 90 people, according to the local municipality.

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Finland tightened its gun legislation in 2010, introducing an aptitude test for all firearms licence applicants. The age limit for applicants was changed to 20 from 18.

There are more than 1.5m licensed firearms and about 430,000 licence holders in the nation of 5.6 million people, where hunting and target shooting are popular activities.