By DPA,
Helsinki : Nine people were killed Tuesday in a shooting spree in western Finland, Finnish news agency STT reported quoting the police.
There were some 150 to 200 students at the trade school in Kauhajoki, about 300 km northwest of capital Helsinki, where the shooting took place, public broadcaster YLE said.
Police superintendent Urpo Lintala said the gunman who tried to shoot himself in the head had been taken to hospital but gave no details of his condition.
The Finnish cabinet was slated to hold an emergency meeting over the incident.
The gunman was seen wearing a ski mask and carrying a bag before the shooting, according to school employees quoted by YLE and other media.
Online media sites and chat groups published images off the video sharing site YouTube with a clip of a young man, identified as “Herra S.” who said he was 22 years old and from Kauhajoki. The clip showed him with a Walther P22 pistol at a shooting range.
The clip was accompanied by a gloomy poem with the words “and suddenly there was war and the mothers screamed”.
In November 2007, a Finnish high school student killed eight people in a school shooting before killing himself.
The 18-year-old student also posted a video on YouTube before the November shooting at Jokela, 60 km north of Helsinki. The incident triggered a series of threats against schools in Finland and its Nordic neighbours.