Prosecutors have filed charges over a hunting accident in which a mountain biker died from a gunshot wound in Urho Kekkonen National Park in October.
The suspect in the case, a man from the municipality of Savukoski in Lapland, is accused of aggravated involuntary manslaughter as well as a hunting crime.
According to the police’s preliminary investigation, the hunter was hunting for birds in the park and did not see the biker as the rifle was discharged, due to snow on the trees obscuring the hunter's view.
A single bullet struck the cyclist in the upper body, fatally injuring him. The distance between the hunter and the cyclist was about 75 metres, police said.
The victim, a 30-year-old man from the Helsinki region, had been biking through an area between Kemihaara and Korvatunturi with four others when the incident occurred at about 11 am on 17 October.
Two of the cyclist's companions began administering first aid immediately after the shooting, but the man died before emergency services arrived on the scene.