Teachers shut classroom doors to protect their pupils after the shooting incident at the school in Vantaa on Tuesday morning, pupils and parents said.
More than 100 worried parents had to wait for over three hours outside the school before police finally deemed it safe to let out the children, some of whom were crying from relief as their parents met them with hugs.
One of the parents was 35-year-old Samuela Anno, who rushed to the school to pick up her 9-year-old son. “He sent me a message, at around 09.30, that mommy, everything is okay, I’m okay, our teachers are reading us books but I didn’t understand the message,” Anno said.
She was later alerted by a friend that a shooting incident had taken place at the school. Another mother, Tanja Hietamies said it had taken an hour before her daughter could send her a message that she was safe.
“She said they were in a dark, locked classroom, not allowed to speak on the phone but could send messages.” One mother, who said her 5th grader Russian-speaking son had been bullied at the school, said he had not felt safe at the school. “(My son) recently spoke about the fact that he is afraid of a school shooting.”