One person has died and ten people have been injured in a "violent incident" at a vocational college in the eastern Finnish town of Kuopio. The suspected attacker is one of the injured. 

Media reports said locals saw a male assailant armed with a sword. They say he burst into a classroom in Savo Vocational College on Tuesday morning.

"He hit a girl in the neck with a sword and stabbed her in the stomach," an unnamed eyewitness told daily Finnish newspaperKeskisuomalainen. The eyewitness said he also set off some small firebombs. 

Roosa Kokkonen, another eyewitness who works in a car garge opposite the site of the attach, said to Finnish TV channel MTV that she saw a teacher with blood running from her hand fleeing out of the building. 

"While I was helping the teacher, I started hearing other shouts for help. Students were running away and into my garage," Kokkonen said. Speaking to Finnish news agency STT, Kokkonen said that students described the weapon as "a long sword" which the man "started swinging around in the class."

"Officers used firearms during the situation. Police have detained one perpetrator. The injured have been evacuated" said East Finland police in a statement. 

Police said two of the injured were in a serious condition. 

Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne said in a tweet that the attack is "shocking and utterly reprehensible."