People put candles and flowers at a makeshift memorial in front of the Viertola School in Vantaa, in the north of the Finnish capital Helsinki, on April 3, 2024, one day after a 12-year-old opened fire inside the school, killing a classmate and seriously injuring two other children. Photo by Olivier MORIN / AFP
Helsinki: A child who was severely injured in a deadly school shooting by a 12-year-old boy in Finland last week remained in a critical condition on Monday, police said.
The shooter killed one boy and seriously injured two girls, all aged 12, in the April 2 shooting in Finland's fourth largest city Vantaa, near Helsinki.
Police said in a statement that the investigation was progressing with a technical examination and multiple interviews held at the weekend.
The suspect told police last week that he carried out the shooting because he had "been the victim of bullying".
Both girls remain in hospital, according to police.
"One of the victims is still in a critical condition," police said in the statement, adding that the other girl had recovered enough for her to be questioned at the weekend.
An investigation into murder and attempted murder was opened last week and police on Monday said that "the course of events is in broad terms well understood by the police".
Bullying "is a very subjective and individual experience", police said in the statement, adding that they were "still investigating extensively the reasons for this act".
The shooting occurred in a classroom, according to Vantaa city officials.
A teacher in the classroom called another teacher to the scene, who talked the armed suspect into leaving the school, police told Finnish news agency STT on Monday.
The boy was arrested in a "calm manner" within an hour of the shooting, police said in the statement.
Investigations revealed that after the shooting, the suspect chose his route randomly and did not threaten other people with a weapon during this time.
Police reported last week that the handgun used in the shooting belonged to a close relative of the boy and that it was being investigated as a separate firearms offence.
Detective Inspector Marko Sarkka confirmed on Monday that the weapon did not belong to an immediate family member, and had been stored properly.
He said the boy had "taken possession of the weapon without permission".
Because of the suspect's young age, he is not criminally liable and cannot be detained. He has been handed over to child welfare authorities.
Police have said that the act appeared to have been planned, based on retrieved evidence, including from the boy's phone and computer.
The child had only been a pupil at the Viertola school, with some 800 children aged seven to 15, since the beginning of the year.
