Finland Times

A Finnish national shot himself to death after killing his Estonian girlfriend with his own pistol in Helsinki on Sunday, police and witnesses said.

The shooting occurred at the West harbour in Helsinki port at about 1.00 pm in a broad daylight. The 53-year Finnish man fired his gun at the chest of his 46 years girlfriend moment before she was departing to Estonian capital Tallinn at the port.

The lady died on the spot immediately after sustaining bullet wounds, eyewitness and police said.

Police rushed to the scene within a span of few minutes and tried to stop the armed person but failed. At certain stage police fired at the leg of the man with submachine gun when the man killed himself by his own pistol, they added.

The man did not fire gunshot at the police during the incident, police said.

The people who were present at the harbour during the incident left the scene and took shelter to the nearby electronic market.

Lotta Ratilainen, who was working nearby stationery shop (kiosk) at that time told STT that she had heard sounds of two to three gunshots.

‘I have seen people running to the outside through the next door and took shelter behind the  Verkkokauppa (an electronics market),’ said Ratilainen, adding that even police took shelter behind a billboard.

Normalcy restored after an ambulance took the bodies away from the port.

Firing guns by police raised question over the legitimacy of using weapons by police and the matter remain unsettled after police fired a man in Helsinki earlier in the month.

The prosecutor is yet to decide whether there is any necessity for using gun during criminal investigation.

Police on June 9 shot a man who was messing with a gun in a popular fairway, Baana in Helsinki centre area in a move to seize the gun from him. The man was in a confused state and did not want to surrender the gun. Police fired gunshot at the man and he was taken to hospital.

Helsinki police, however, claimed the law enforcers acted accordingly Saturday to bring the situation of Helsinki harbour under control.