Helsinki, Finland: A gunman shot dead three women, including a council leader, as they were leaving a restaurant in a small Finnish town on Saturday night, police said.

Investigators cited by the SST news agency on Sunday said the municipal council head and two local journalists were killed in the town of Imatra by a man armed with a shotgun who was later arrested.

The suspect was interrogated on Sunday but the motive for the attack remained unclear, the investigators told a press conference.

Imatra is a small lakeside town in southeastern Finland, just a few kilometres (miles) from the Russian border.