A police vehicle is parked outside the student dormitory in Sarkiniemi in Kuopio, Finland, Wednesday Oct. 2, 2019. A man wielding a sword and a firearm killed a woman and wounded nine others Tuesday at a vocational school inside a shopping center in central Finland, police said. The attacker was seriously wounded after police opened fire, and he was taken into custody. The man's apartment was later raided by police, and a cache of firebombs were found there. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP)
The Associated Press
HELSINKI (AP) - Finnish police said Wednesday they believe a man who killed a woman and wounded nine other people while wielding a sword and a firearm inside a classroom acted alone.
Chief investigator Olli Toyras of the National Bureau of Investigation says the man, who wasn't officially named, is suspected of murder and several murder attempts. No motive or reason for Tuesday's attack at a vocational school was immediately known.
Police fired twice to stop the man, a Finnish citizen born in 1994, after he refused to obey a police order, Toyras said Wednesday. The suspect, who was seriously wounded, is in custody at a hospital.
Toyras said the man was a student at the Savo Vocational College, which occupies the second floor of the Herman shopping center in Kuopio, central Finland. The city is 350 kilometers (220 miles) northeast of the capital, Helsinki.
Finnish media say the victim was a student at the school and "the primary target" of the dark-clad attacker who entered a class with a bag and took out a sword and struck the teacher with it. They said those injured were students and staff of the school, mostly women aged 15-50.
It wasn't clear if the attacker used his firearm.
Due to the attack, flags were lowered to half-mast on public government offices and institutions across the Nordic country on Wednesday.
The stairs at a student dormitory are shown in S'rkiniemi, Kuopio, Finland on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. Finnish police say that one man has died in a knife attack and several others are injured at the shopping center in central Finland. (Hannu Rainamo/Lehtikuva via AP)
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Police attend the scene of a violent incident at the Hermanni shopping centre in Kuopio, Finland, Tuesday Oct. 1, 2019. Finnish police say that one man has died in a knife attack and several others are injured at the shopping center in central Finland. (Hannu Rainamo/Lehtikuva via AP)
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Police attend the scene of a violent incident at the Hermanni shopping centre in Kuopio, Finland, Tuesday Oct. 1, 2019. Finnish police say that one man has died in a knife attack and several others are injured at the shopping center in central Finland. (Hannu Rainamo/Lehtikuva via AP)
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Emergency services attend the scene of a violent incident at the Hermanni shopping centre in Kuopio, Finland, Tuesday Oct. 1, 2019. Finnish police say that a man with a knife has killed one person and wounded at least three others at a shopping center in central Finland. (Jaakko Vesterinen/Lehtikuva via AP)
The Associated Press
Police attend the scene of a violent incident at the Hermanni shopping centre in Kuopio, Finland, Tuesday Oct. 1, 2019. Finnish police say that a man with a knife has killed one person and wounded at least three others at a shopping center in central Finland. (Jaakko Vesterinen/Lehtikuva via AP)
The Associated Press