Eight Shot Dead at Finland school after YouTube post

[george benjamin]

Eight killed at Finland school after YouTube post
Wed Nov 7, 2007 11:51 AM EST

By Sami Torma

TUUSULA, Finland (Reuters) - Seven children were killed when a fellow student opened fire at a school in southern Finland on Wednesday, hours after a video was posted on YouTube predicting a massacre there.

The school principal also died. The gunman, who had walked through Jokela High School firing into classroom after classroom, is in hospital after shooting and wounding himself.

"Five boys, two girls and one adult woman were killed," police chief Matti Tohkanen told a news conference.

He later identified the woman as the principal of the school in Tuusula municipality, a town of 35,000 some 60 km (40 miles) from Helsinki.

The YouTube video, set to a hard-driving song called "Stray Bullet," shows a still photo of a low building that appears to be Jokela High School. The photo breaks apart to reveal a red-tinted picture of a man pointing a handgun at the camera.

"He (the gunman) was moving systematically through the school hallways, knocking on the doors and shooting through the doors," said Kim Kiuru, who was teaching a grade 8 class when the shooting began.

"It felt unreal, a pupil I have taught myself was running towards me, screaming, a pistol in his hand."

Outside a church community building close by, a mother waited as a Red Cross bus pulled up outside. She watched children stepping off the bus and burst into tears when, through a window, she spotted her child, unharmed.

The YouTube video, entitled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007," was posted by a user called Sturmgeist89.

"I am prepared to fight and die for my cause," read a posting by a user of the same name.

"I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection." "Sturmgeist" means storm spirit in German.

Hours after the shooting, the user's account was suspended.

PEACEFUL TUUSULA

Junior Constable Olli Laine said earlier police had evacuated students from the building, which serves some 500 middle and high school students.

"This is a peaceful place, nothing like this has happened and nothing like this is to be expected either," Tuusula mayor Hannu Joensivu said.

Despite having the world's third-largest per capita handgun ownership, violent incidents are rare at Finnish schools.

According to Finnish media, there have been four stabbings at schools since 1999. None of these caused fatalities.

Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen told reporters the shooting was an "extremely sad event."

The last major attack in the country occurred in 2002 when a young man killed including himself and six others in a bomb blast at a shopping mall in Helsinki.

(Additional reporting by Sakari Suoninen, Terhi Kinnunen and Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Robert Woodward)

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/new...OOTING-COL.XML

[unleashed]

Man this is tragic, I really feel bad for the parents who lost their innocent kids in all this.

[aimfox]

i feel sorry for the people who died innocently. luckily this was in finland and not america

[Smoked]

where is the youtube video?

[Hanniganite]

Hopefully the tool lives so he can be properly punished the public can find out what made him do it.

Thread title made me think the shooting was in response to the vid or something..

[Little Dragon]

i feel sorry for the people who died innocently. luckily this was in finland and not america

luckily? how is this good or lucky for anyone? even the media will entwine america in this somehow. youtube is american.

[ab20]

o man,
this school shooting stuff is starting to be a trend...
i feel sad for students who just want to learn...

[Aznkid2000]

where is the youtube video?

youtube took the video out

and i feel sorry for a these kids.

Whats wrong with ppl these days

[UrbanPoet]

video was probably taken off b/c its gonna be used as evidence in a criminal investigation.

[VorteC]

Rip.

[kleptodathief]

wow...thought this only happens in the USA,canaduh!

[UrbanPoet]

wow...thought this only happens in the USA,canaduh!

the worst mass killing was actually in South Korea....
A guy went pyscho and went house to house identifying himself as a police officer (he was a cop, but he went insane). He started to shoot every one and even had grenades.

[GangStarr]

The weather in Finland is wacky, when I was there in summer sunset was 11pm and sunrise was 4am. It's the reverse in winter, meaning its dark, so dark Fins must wear reflectors when they walk around. I also hear it has the highest suicide rate in Europe.

Tragic event.

[SwiZz]

You can see the video here:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=369_1194449557

CityPulse posted a link to it from there page:

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_16528.aspx

[divx]

video was probably taken off b/c its gonna be used as evidence in a criminal investigation.

They don't need anymore evidence to convict the gunman, they already know who he is and what he did.