Finland: Gunman kills fellow students in college rampage

A student ran amok with a pistol at a Finnish adult training college killing several people today.

The incident came less than a year after another school gunman shot dead eight people in the country.

Police said they had disarmed today’s gunman at the school in Kauhajoki, about 200 miles from Helsinki, but it was unclear whether he was alive or dead.

Police Superintendent Jussi Muotio said: “The incident is over now,” but declined to give more details.

Reports said the shooting began just before 11am (9am Irish time) when there were some 200 students in the building.

One said that the school building was on fire and that the gunman possibly had explosives on him.

Finnish media said YouTube clips 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 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.

The posting included a message saying: “Whole life is war and whole life is pain. And you will fight alone in your personal war.”

Last November Pekka-Eric Auvinen, described by police as a bullied 18-year-old outcast, opened fire at his high school in southern Finland.

He killed six students, a school nurse and the principal before ending his own life with a gunshot to the head.

An internet site featuring a young man from the same town as the Finnish school shooting was updated a few hours before the tragedy today.

The YouTube entry was removed after the deadly rampage in Kauhajoki.

Naming himself as 22-year-old “Mr Saari” the author, who listed guns among his hobbies, is shown firing a Walther .22 pistol at a target range.

He also added a poem today about war which ends:

“Whole life is war and whole life is pain

And you will fight alone in your personal war

War

This is war!“