The authorities reported that children were the victims of the shooting incident in Vantaa city, with one confirmed fatality. The suspect, who is also a minor, was subsequently apprehended.

On Tuesday morning, a 12-year-old student in southern Finland tragically opened fire at a lower secondary school, resulting in the death of one fellow student and the serious injury of two others, all of whom were also 12 years old, according to police.

The suspect was apprehended later in the Helsinki area with a handgun in their possession.

Following the incident, heavily armed police cordoned off the school, which accommodates approximately 800 students, in the city of Vantaa, near the capital, Helsinki, responding to a call about the shooting at 9:08 a.m.

"The immediate danger is over," reassured Sari Laasila, the principal of Viertola school, to Reuters.

"The day began with a dreadful event: a shooting incident occurred at Viertola school in Vantaa. I can only envision the anguish and concern gripping many families right now. Fortunately, the suspected perpetrator has been apprehended," Interior Minister Mari Rantanen announced on X.

Also on X, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo described the shooting as "deeply shocking."

Initially, the motive for the shooting wasn't clear.

Reuters reported that the school serves students from first through ninth grade, according to the local municipality.

Over previous decades, Finland has seen two significant and deadly school shootings.

In November 2007, a tragic incident unfolded when an 18-year-old student, armed with a semi-automatic pistol, unleashed gunfire at Jokela high school in Tuusula, southern Finland. The attack claimed the lives of nine individuals. The perpetrator was subsequently discovered deceased with self-inflicted wounds.

Less than a year later, in September 2008, another tragic event unfolded when a 22-year-old student used a semi-automatic pistol to fatally shoot 10 people at a vocational college in Kauhajoki, southwestern Finland, before taking his own life.

In the Nordic nation of 5.6 million, there are more than 1.5 million licensed firearms and approximately 430,000 license holders, as reported by the Finnish Interior Ministry. The country's sparsely-populated northern European region has a longstanding tradition of hunting and gun ownership.

Responsibility for issuing permits for ordinary firearms lies with local police departments.

In response to the school shootings in 2007 and 2008, Finland enacted stricter gun laws, including raising the minimum age for firearms ownership and granting police broader authority to conduct background checks on individuals applying for a gun license.