Suspect among shopping mall blast victims

Seven people died and 80 were injured after a bomb ripped through a crowded shopping mall near Helsinki.

Officials said today they were not ruling out an act of terrorism and the suspect, a Finnish citizen, was among the dead.

The explosion happened yesterday at about 7.35pm local time (5.35pm UK time) and caused parts of the glass-covered construction in one of Finland’s largest malls, in suburban Vantaa, to collapse.

Police said they suspect a Finnish student – under the age of 20 and a resident of the Helsinki region – of being responsible for the explosion. He was killed in the blast, they said.

Police said he had no criminal record, but declined to further identify the suspect.

Chief Superintendent Tero Haapala said the several pounds of explosives contained gunshot pellets, suggesting a home-made device.

“Some sort of professional knowledge (of explosives) was necessary to construct the device,” Haapala said.

“At this moment we have no motive.”

Police declined to speculate if it was a terror-linked attack.

Up to 2,000 people had packed into the three-storey Myyrmanni mall in Vantaa, about nine miles north of the capital. A clown had been inflating balloons for children moments before, near the ground-floor blast site.

Nine children were among the 80 people who were injured, but police declined to say whether any children were killed. They said all the victims had been identified.

The powerful blast shocked a country unaccustomed to such violence.

“We hope that this is an isolated incident,” said Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen.

“It is an act of terror in a sense – a bomb explosion in a shopping centre in itself – but whether it’s a question of an organised group behind a terrorist organisation … we are looking into that.”

“Nothing like this has happened in Finland before,” Lipponen said. “The information we have suggests that the explosives were constructed so as to cause the largest possible damage.”

The government met in an emergency session and government leaders, including Lipponen and President Tarja Halonen, attended a memorial service at a church near the blast site.

The Bishop of Helsinki, Eero Huovinen, who conducted the service said Finland no longer was immune to violence.

“Distress grew when we heard that this was a crime,” Huovinen said, his voice breaking with emotion. “The world, here too, is no longer a haven of safety.”

Rescue officials set up crisis centres and the Finnish Red Cross appealed for blood donors to meet extra demand in hospitals operating on blast victims, some of whom had lost limbs.

Police said they had not detained anyone but were questioning several people.

“The amount of explosives used was such that it could easily be carried around unobserved,” said Jari Liukku, chief superintendent of the National Bureau of Investigation.