7 die in school shooting spree
2007-11-07 16:50
Tuusula - At least seven people died when a gunman opened fire at a school in southern Finland on Wednesday, hours after a video was posted on YouTube predicting a school massacre.
A teacher at the Jokela High School said the gunman was
one of its pupils.
"At this moment its seven (deaths) or more, higher," Dr Eero
Hirvensalo, the head of the medical response team, said.
The YouTube video, set to hard-driving music, shows a still
photo of a school that appears to be the Jokela High School. The
photo then fragments to reveal a red-tinted picture of a man
pointing a gun at the camera.
Three people were wounded in the shooting, according to
early reports. One of those shot was the school principal, said
Tuula Panula, spokesperson for the Tuusula municipality, about 60km from the Finnish capital Helsinki.
"He (the gunman) was moving systematically through the
school hallways, knocking on doors and shooting through the
doors," Kim Kiuru, a teacher at the school, said.
"It felt unreal, a pupil I have taught myself was running
towards me, screaming, a pistol in his hand."
The YouTube video is entitled "Jokela High School Massacre -
11/7/2007" and was posted by a user called Sturmgeist89.
"Sturmgeist" means storm spirit in German.
The last major attack in the country came in 2002 when a
young man killed himself and six others in a bomb
blast at a shopping mall in Helsinki.
- Reuters