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Finland gunman murders 10 of his fellow students
Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter23 Sep 2008
A masked man armed with explosives and a machinegun went on the rampage at a college today, murdering at least 10 fellow students.
Nine people were confirmed deadbut police said the death toll was likely to rise as emergency services searched the burnt-out buildings at a vocational college in Kauhajoki, about 200 miles from Helsinki in Finland. One report suggested dozens of people, including teachers, had been injured .
Terrified students ran screaming from the college as they sought refuge from the gunman.
Police said the 22-year-old killer had set fire to areas within the college as well as shooting at students during a spree that had lasted almost two hours. He began firing in a ground floor classroom where students were taking tests and continued sporadically for two hours.
Police are investigating a possible link between the gunman and videos on the internet showing a young man dressed in black repeatedly firing a pistol at a shooting range close to the scene of today's atrocity.
One report suggested the gunman may even have boobytrapped a part of the school, which is for students aged from 16 to 22.
It is then thought the killer shot himself in the head. A local hospital said he was seriously wounded and being treated for self-inflicted injuries but another report said he had committed-suicide. The college caretaker told how he saw a man wearing a ski mask entering the building carrying a large bag.
Jukka Forsberg said: "A coldblooded shooter entered the building with an automatic pistol and started cutting down students. He also shot towards me, did not say anything, and once the bullets started to whizz by I started running for my life."
Local authorities said students and staff had been evacuated from the school, where a fire broke out but was later extinguished."Several are dead," said Kauhajoki mayor Antti Rantakokko. "The situation is over now."
The internet videos, which show a young man wearing only black repeatedly firing a pistol at a shooting range, are posted by a 22-year-old student at the college calling himself Mr Saari. He lists his interests as "computers, guns, sex and beer" and his favourite film include the extremely violent Saw series of movies.
A police spokesman in Helsinki said: "The man in the video may be the same as the killer. We are investigating."
Last year at Finland's Jokela high school Pekka-Eric Auvinen killed six fellow students, the school nurse and the principal after broadcasting his intent with a video on YouTube. He shot himself and died later of his injuries.
Finland has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world, ranking third after the US and Yemen, according to a study last year by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.
