Helsinki shooting new type of criminality in Finland

Police confirmed on Wednesday that a 32-year-old man was in custody as suspect for Tuesday's shooting in downtown Helsinki.

Two men born in the 1990s were injured and one was not hit. Helsinki police described the incident as "resulting from conflicts between the men," but gave no further details.

Jukka Larkio, a criminal police inspector, said this was a "new type of criminality in Finland...This has been typical of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, but was the first case in Finland."

Larkio declined to explain what he had meant with "new type of crimes," news agency STT reported. Larkio said there was no drug related crime involved, for now.

According to the inspector, the motives were still being looked into. "But there are indications that the issues concerned economic profit and who is doing what." He did not use the word "organized criminality," using instead "serious criminality."

The police have not published the nationalities of the suspect or the victims. But inspector Larkio said they were not ethnic Finns. Local media quoted eyewitnesses saying the shooter was "foreigner looking."

Larkio underlined that the shooting in downtown Helsinki put many outsiders at danger. The 32-year-old suspect left the crime scene, but was detained later in the evening. He was suspected of three attempted murders.