The 16-year-old has not yet been questioned and the police do not take a stance on the boy's motives.
Videos have circulated on social media showing how the suspect moves around the school and sounds that suggest an attack is underway, says Commissioner Jari Kinnunen at a press conference.
As a police officer, I think it's very wrong and incomprehensible that these videos are spreading. It's also very inhumane for those involved, he continues.
The police also report that they are aware of an SMS, allegedly from the boy, where he hopes that the films will be saved until he is released from prison.
We'll find out during the interrogations if it's the suspect himself who wrote this, says Kinnunen.
Suspected of Attempted Murder
None of the victims have life-threatening injuries, the police reported earlier. At the press conference, the authorities did not want to elaborate on the injuries.
The alarm about a knife attack came at 10:40 local time and the police received information that three to four students were injured. After that, the suspect, who himself attends the school, is said to have removed himself to a nearby square.
The arrest took place shortly thereafter without resistance. The 16-year-old is now suspected of three attempted murders.
The suspect is said to have sent the manifesto to Finnish media, including Iltalehti on Tuesday morning, where he said he planned to knife attack girls and then surrender to the police.
At the press conference, the police say they assume the manifesto was written by the suspect and state that the manifesto claims he deliberately chose girls as targets.
Planned with Chat GPT
In the manifesto, the boy is said to explain that he planned his deed for half a year with the help of Chat GPT and that he would be alcohol-intoxicated. His motive was to "do something meaningful" and "take revenge on the world", according to the newspaper Dagens ETC.
"My targets are women, because I think women are easier targets and because the thought of harming a woman is more satisfying than harming a man", he is said to have thought according to the manifesto.
Vähäjärvi school has around 1,250 students, from preschool to ninth grade. There are approximately 150 teachers and other staff working there.
2007: An 18-year-old shot and killed eight people at a school in Jokela north of Helsinki and then took his own life.
2008: A total of eleven people, including the shooter, died at a vocational school in Kauhajoki in southern Ostrobothnia.
2019: A woman was killed and about ten people were injured when a man armed with a sword attacked a vocational school in Kuopio.
2024: A 12-year-old shot and killed a classmate and injured others at a school in Vanda.
