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'I am your apocalypse'
08/11/2007 08:45 - (SA)
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| This is a screen captured image taken from internet website YouTube of a teenage gunman, believed to be responsible for the Finnish shooting spree. (YouTube, AP) |
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Tuusula, Finland - An 18-year-old student opened fire at his high school in this placid town in southern Finland on Wednesday, killing eight people before shooting himself in a rampage that stunned a nation where gun crime is rare.
The gunman was rushed to a hospital in Helsinki with a gunshot wound to his head after Wednesday's shooting at Jokela High School in Tuusula, some 50km north of the capital.
He was pronounced dead later on Wednesday. "There was no hope," said Dr Eero Hirvensalo, chief of the Toolo Hospital in central Helsinki. "His condition was critical from the beginning."
YouTube postings
Police were analysing YouTube postings that appeared to anticipate the massacre, including clips in which a young man calls for revolution and apparently prepares for the attack by test firing a semiautomatic handgun.
The gunman, who was not identified, shot the victims - five boys, two girls and the female principal - with a .22-calibre pistol, police said, adding about a dozen other people were injured as they tried to escape from the school.
Witnesses described a scene of mayhem in the leafy lakeside community, in which the assailant scoured the school for victims while shouting slogans of "revolution".
Police chief Matti Tohkanen said the gunman belonged to a gun club and got a licence for the pistol on October 19. He did not have a previous criminal record, Tohkanen said. "He was from an ordinary family," he said.
Investigators were searching for a possible motive in the YouTube postings that appeared to reveal plans of the deadly attack.
One video, titled Jokela High School Massacre, showed a picture of what appeared to be the school and two photos of a young man holding a handgun. Electronic music played in the background with a growling voice singing "I am your apocalypse".
'Humanity is overrated'
The person who posted the video was identified in the user profile as an 18-year-old man from Finland. The posting was later removed.
The profile contained a text calling for a "revolution against the system".
Another YouTube video clip showed a young man clad in a dark jacket loading a clip into a handgun and firing several shots at an apple placed on the ground in a forested area. He smiled and waved to the camera at the end of the clip.
A third clip showed photos of what appeared to be same man posing with a gun and wearing a T-shirt with the text "Humanity is overrated".
Police said they would investigate any possible connection the gunman might have had to the video.
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