9 killed in gun rampage
Finnish student goes on shooting spree in school
Published:
A STUDENT ran amok with a pistol at a Finnish adult training college killing up to nine people today before shooting himself.
And it was revealed the gunman had been questioned then released yesterday by police over a video he posted on the internet.
The 22-year-old student, named as Matti Juhani Saari and who was only granted a firearms licence last month, was seen by officers, Finland’s interior minister Anne Holmlund admitted today.
She said he was freed because officers had no legal reason to detain him.
The attack came less than a year after another gun rampage at a school in the country that also left nine people dead including the attacker.
The shootings today began just before 11am as about 150 students went to class in Kauhajoki, 180 miles from Helsinki.
Witnesses said panic broke out as the hooded gunman entered the school and opened fire.
“Within a short space of time I heard several dozen rounds of shots, in other words it was an automatic pistol,” school janitor Jukka Forsberg said.
“I saw some female students who were wailing and moaning.”
Police at the school said that several people were killed. Other reports said the building was on fire and the gunman reportedly had explosives on him.
Jussi Muotio, superintendent of the Kauhajoki police, confirmed several people had been wounded but could not immediately confirm the deaths. “The incident is over now,” he said.
The gunman was reported to have been severely injured from a shot to his head Vesa Nyrhinen, detective superintendent from the local police, said the gunman “was wounded by his own bullets”.
Finnish media said clips on a website of a man firing a gun appeared to be linked to the shooting.
In one of them, a young man wearing a leather jacket fires several shots in rapid succession with a .22 Walther 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. It included a message saying: “Whole life is war and whole life is pain.”
Police could not immediately confirm whether the postings were linked to today’s shooting.
Last year Pekka-Eric Auvinen, opened fire at his high school on November 7.
The 18-year-old, described as an outcast, killed six students, a school nurse and the principal before ending his own life with a gunshot to the head.
