12 held in Tampere, 7 illegal firearms recovered

Police in a raid arrested 12 people and recovered seven unauthorised firearms from Hatanpää area in Tampere on new year´s eve, said police in a statement on Saturday afternoon.

A patrol of Tampere police rushed to a sauna facility at the area after hearing loud noise at its roof late Friday night at about 11:45 pm and found that some people were trying to flee away sensing presence of the members of the law enforcing agency.

Police found two pistols and a knife from the possession first and recovered five more pistols after conducting extensive search there.

Police arrested a total of 12 people from the spot in this connection.

The law enforcing agency found the suspects are drunk and violent to them prompting the police to apply force during the arrest. Police, however, did not use firearms.

"All of the firearms are illegal and none of them has any valid ground to get firearm license legally. ….,” said Markku Laakso, the commissioner for investigation at Central Finland Police Department.