A lone gunman shot dead three women, a local official and two journalists, in an attack in a small town in Finland, a country with one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world.
Nothing demonstrates that he came [specifically] to kill these three women
Police said on Sunday they believed the 23-year-old suspect, who was swiftly arrested after the night-time shooting on Saturday, acted alone and initial indications were that there was no political or extremist motive.
The attack took place as the women were leaving a restaurant in the southeastern lakeside town of Imatra near the Russian border, and police said they may have been targeted at random.
Investigators identified the victims as the head of the municipal council and two local reporters for the Uutisvuoksi newspaper, the STT news agency said.
A police statement said the women had died at the scene after being shot at close range, sustaining gunshot wounds to the head or torso. The suspect, a local man, did not put up any resistance to his arrest and the weapon was found in the boot of his car.
The gun belonged to an unidentified person who had a hunting licence, police said, indicating that the inquiry would seek to establish how it was in the suspect’s possession.
Finland enjoys relatively low crime rates compared to other European nations but, with many Finns keen hunters, it has one of the biggest gun ownership rates in the world.
