Finnish school siege 'under control'

An armed teenager was holding police at bay inside a school today after shooting one person dead and taking several pupils hostage.

The 18-year-old injured another three victims, one of them the head of the school near with Finnish capital of Helsinki.

Most of the 400 pupils aged between 12 and 18 managed to flee the building and a police spokesman claimed they had the situation under control at Jokela high school in Tuusula, adding "there is no danger to outsiders now".

Teacher Kim Kiuru said the head announced over the public address system just before noon (10am Irish time) that all students should remain in their classrooms.

"I stayed in the corridor to listen to more instructions having locked my classroom door.

"After that I saw the gunman running with what appeared to be a small calibre handgun in his hand through the doors toward me after which I escaped to the corridor downstairs and ran in the opposite direction."

He said he saw a woman's body as he fled the building.

"Then my pupils shouted at me out of the windows to ask what they should do and I told them to jump out of the windows … and all my pupils were saved."

Reports said the shooter revealed his plans in a YouTube posting before the attack.

A YouTube video titled "Jokela High School Massacre" showed a picture of a building by a lake and two photos of a young man holding a hand gun. It has since been removed.

The person who posted the video was identified in the user profile as an 18-year-old man from Finland.

The profile contained a text calling for a "revolution against the system".

It is the first reported incident of a fatal shooting at a Finnish school, where previously violent incidents usually involved knives but had never resulted in death.