Gunman kills 9 at Finland trade school

Gunman kills 9 at Finland trade school
YouTube videos show student firing gun.

Published Tuesday, September 23, 2008

KAUHAJOKI, Finland (AP) - A masked gunman whose violent YouTube postings prompted police to bring him in for questioning opened fire today at his trade school in western Finland, killing nine people before shooting himself in the head.

Witnesses said panic broke out as the gunman entered the school in Kauhajoki, 180 miles northwest of Helsinki, and began firing in a classroom where students were taking an exam. The shootings began just before 11 a.m. as about 150 students were at the Kauhajoki School of Hospitality.

The gunman had been questioned by police yesterday about YouTube postings in which he is seen firing a handgun, Interior Minister Anne Holmlund said. He was released because there were no legal grounds to hold him, she said.

It was Finland’s second school massacre in less than a year.

The gunman shot himself in the head, just like the other school shooting in Finland last year, and was taken to a hospital in Tampere along with a female victim he had shot in the head, the hospital’s medical director Matti Lehto told the AP.

Kauhajoki Mayor Antti Rantakokko said nine victims were killed, and hospital officials said later the gunman himself had died.

Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat said police identified the gunman as Matti Juhani Saari, a 22-year-old student. Authorities would only confirm that he was a student at the school, born in 1986.

"We have experienced a tragic day," Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said as he expressed condolences to the families of the victims and declared tomorrow a day of mourning.

Today’s rampage happened almost a year after another gunman killed eight people and himself at a school in southern Finland, an attack that triggered a fierce debate about gun laws in this Nordic nation with deep-rooted traditions of hunting in the sub-Arctic wilderness.

Finnish authorities did not confirm exactly what YouTube clips were linked to the shooter. However, Finnish media reported that in one YouTube clip, a young man wearing a leather jacket fires several shots in rapid succession with a handgun at what appears to be a shooting range.

The posting was made five days before the shooting, and the location was given as Kauhajoki - the same town as today’s shooting. The posting included a message saying: "Whole life is war and whole life is pain. And you will fight alone in your personal war."

The person who posted the clip identified himself as a 22-year-old with the name "Mr. Saari." He also posted three other clips of himself firing a handgun in the past three weeks.

Last year, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, described by police as a bullied 18-year-old outcast, opened fire at his high school in southern Finland on Nov. 7. He killed six students, a school nurse and the principal before ending his own life with a gunshot to the head.

Finnish investigators have said Auvinen left a suicide note for his family and foreshadowed his attack in YouTube postings.

With 1.6 million firearms in private hands, Finland is an anomaly in Europe, lagging behind only the United States and Yemen in civilian gun ownership, studies show.

After Auvinen’s rampage, the government said it would raise the minimum age for buying guns from 15 to 18 but insisted there was no need for changes to Finland’s gun laws.