A fire tore through a block of flats in Vantaa early on Tuesday, killing five members of the same family and leaving a newborn in hospital.<\/p>\n
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Police suspect arson and are investigating five counts of murder and aggravated arson.<\/p>\n
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Emergency services received the alarm at 5.41am for a building fire on P\u00e4hkin\u00e4rinteentie in the P\u00e4hkin\u00e4rinne district of west Vantaa. By morning, crews had extinguished the blaze.<\/p>\n
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Rescue units, paramedics and police patrols remained at the scene.<\/p>\n
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The victims were a Somali family. The parents were aged between 30 and 40. The children were aged three, six and eight.<\/p>\n
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A baby only days old survived. The child was taken to hospital with serious injuries.<\/p>\n
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Police said the five victims were found in the stairwell. They had left their third-floor flat as smoke filled the building.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe smoke production was heavy and the stairwell was not in a condition that would allow passage,\u201d said Mikael Backlund, a commissioner with Eastern Uusimaa Police, at a press conference.<\/p>\n
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Police said they found no signs of external violence on the victims.<\/p>\n
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The fire appears to have started in a second-floor flat, where the heaviest damage is visible. The rear fa\u00e7ade of the six-storey building stands blackened. Windows on upper floors were broken during rescue efforts.<\/p>\n
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Police have detained a man in his 70s who lived in the same building. Detective Chief Inspector Sanna Rentola, who leads the investigation, said the suspect is a Finnish-born man with no significant criminal record.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe suspected offences are aggravated arson and murder,\u201d Rentola said.<\/p>\n
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She said the suspect did not target the Somali family in particular.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe family was not the target any more than any other person in the building,\u201d she told reporters.<\/p>\n
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Rentola said the suspect reported himself to police at the scene. Officers had spoken with him but had not yet carried out a formal interview.<\/p>\n
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Police have not disclosed how the fire was set. Technical investigation indicates that the blaze was started deliberately.<\/p>\n
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Authorities ruled out a racist motive.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere are no indications of a racist motive,\u201d Rentola said.<\/p>\n
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Four people sustained injuries. One person remains in serious condition and three suffered minor injuries, police said.<\/p>\n
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The city has arranged discussion support at local schools and nurseries for pupils, staff and families.<\/p>\n
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The Vantaa and Kerava wellbeing services county has offered emergency accommodation and psychosocial support.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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H\u00e4meenkyl\u00e4 parish will hold a memorial service at 6pm on Tuesday at the local church. The church will remain open for reflection and discussion. Members of the Somali community have also gathered at mosques in the area to mourn the victims.<\/p>\n
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Police have sealed off the building. The investigation continues under police command.<\/p>\n
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HT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fire tore through a block of flats in Vantaa early on Tuesday, killing five members of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[87],"tags":[5168,158,18865,113,18864,18862,18860,18858,18861,18859,18863,18857],"class_list":["post-31697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-helsinki","tag-arson","tag-finland","tag-finland-news","tag-helsinki","tag-henna-niskanen","tag-markus-kuosmanen","tag-murder-investigation","tag-pahkinarinne","tag-sanna-rentola","tag-somali-family","tag-tero-anttila","tag-vantaa-fire"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}