A makeshift candlelight memorial was set up outside the Vuoksenvahti restaurant in the small Finnish town of Imatra, where three women were killed on December 4, 2016 (AFP Photo/Hannu Rissanen)

Helsinki (AFP) - A lone gunman shot dead three women, a local official and two journalists, in an attack in a small town in Finland, a country with one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world. The chairwoman of Imatra Town Council and two local reporters were gunned down in a pedestrian area outside a restaurant in the town just before a police patrol car arrived to the scene around midnight Saturday, police spokeswoman Heli Jamsen-Turkki said. Saku Tielinen, who is leading the investigation, said the suspect had a criminal record, including for violent incidents and theft but declined to identify him or give more details. Imatra mayor Pertti Lintunen confirmed to STT that Tiina Wilen-Jappinen, the local council's Social-Democrat leader who was in her early 50s, was among the victims. The gun belonged to an unidentified person who had a hunting licence, police said, indicating that the inquiry would seek to establish how it was in the suspect's possession.
Three women, the Imatra Town Council chairwoman and two local reporters, are shot dead outside a restaurant in Imatra, Finland, a town east of the capital, Helsinki. A 23-year-old suspect is apprehended by police.