Sword Attack Leaves One Dead, 10 Injured At Finnish College

Helsinki, Oct 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Oct, 2019 ) :A man armed with a bladed weapon attacked students at a vocational college in eastern Finland on Tuesday, killing one person in an attack that left ten injured, including a police officer, police said.

Witnesses said a young man with a sword burst into a classroom. Police have yet to establish a motive for the attack.

Emergency services were called to Savo Vocational College, situated in the Herman shopping centre in the eastern town of Kuopio, at 12:29 pm (0929 GMT), police said.

"The suspect was carrying a sabre-type bladed weapon," detective superintendent Mikko Lyytinen from East Finland Police told a press conference.

The suspect was also carrying a gun, he said.

Authorities have not named the suspect but have identified him as a Finnish citizen born in 1994 and enrolled as a student at the college.

Eyewitness reports in Finnish media said the suspected assailant went on a rampage in a classroom.

"He hit a girl in the neck with a sword and stabbed her in the stomach," an unnamed eyewitness told Keskisuomalainen newspaper. The attacker also set off "some sort of small firebombs", the eyewitness said.

Police have yet to release details about the murder victim.

"I can confirm only at this stage that the victim was a woman," detective superintendent Lyytinen said.

Another eyewitness, Roosa Kokkonen, who works in a car garage opposite the college, told Finnish tv channel MTV that a teacher with blood running from her hand came fleeing out of the building.

"While I was helping the teacher, I started hearing other shouts for help. Students were running away and into my garage," Kokkonen told MTV News.

She also told Finnish news agency STT that students described the weapon as "a long sword", and that he "started swinging the sword around in the class".

Officers shot the suspect when they apprehended him less than 10 minutes after receiving the emergency call.

"The suspect was seriously injured during his detention and is being treated at Kuopio University Hospital," police said in a statement.

One police officer sustained minor injuries at the scene. Two other people were in serious condition in hospital.

Police also said the suspect started a fire on the second floor of the building which was quickly extinguished.