Finland school killer was bullied

The teenager who shot dead eight students and staff in a Finnish school was a social outcast who was bullied, police said today.

“You can say that the motive is still open, but the explanation can be found mainly in his web writings and his social behaviour,” said Detective Superintendent Tero Haapala.

Investigators believe 18-year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen chose his victims at random after posting plans for the attack with a legally-owned .22 automatic pistol on YouTube.

Auvinen’s victims included the school’s headmistress and nurse at Jokela High School in Tuusula, 30 miles north of Helsinki before he shot himself in the head, dying later in hospital.

“There’s nothing that links him with the victims except that they attended the same school,” Mr Haapala said.

Today grieving students placed candles outside the school, which was still sealed off as forensic experts sought to reconstruct the massacre.

Today was declared a day of mourning in Finland, which is unaccustomed to deadly shootings although it has a high rate of gun ownership.

Memorial services were planned across the country including in Tuusula, where a church was turned into a crisis centre with experts on hand to comfort residents. Flags were flying at half mast across the nation.

Police said Auvinen belonged to a gun club and got a licence for the pistol last month.

He did not have a previous criminal record and “was from an ordinary family".