Kitia
JF-Expert Member
- Dec 2, 2006
- 418
- 77
Finnish police spoke to the gunman who killed nine people at a school in western Finland a day before he carried out the attack, because of a video he had posted on YouTube.
Anne Holmlund, Finland's Interior Minister, told a news conference police were alerted to a video the gunman had put on the Internet showing him wielding a handgun at a shooting range but were unable to get in touch with him immediately (watch his YouTube videos).
'Police reached him on Monday, 22 Sept, and asked him to be interviewed regarding the shooting video,' Minister Holmlund said.
She said the gunman, who was not yet identified, had a temporary permit for a .22 calibre pistol but that the permit was not withdrawn.
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'Police action will be examined in more detail later. The gunman had a temporary permit for a .22 calibre pistol, and he had received it in August 2008. It was his first gun.'
Several other people are believed to have been injured in the shooting incident at a catering college in the town of Kauhajoki, about 330km northwest of Helsinki.
The gunman is said to be about 20 years old and is injured and receiving medical attention.
Local authorities said students and staff had been evacuated from the school, where a fire broke out but was later extinguished.
The school, which calls itself the 'Kauhajoki School of Hospitality', had 150 students and 40 teachers as of 2005, according to the official website.
Today's shooting raised the spectre of the killings at Finland's Jokela high school last year, where student Pekka-Eric Auvinen killed six fellow students, the school nurse and the principal after broadcasting his intent with a video on YouTube.
Mr Auvinen shot himself and died later of his injuries.
A search of YouTube yielded four videos filmed by a user who called himself Mr Saari, said he was 22 years old and lived in Kauhajoki.
The YouTube user's profile included the words: 'And suddenly there was war and the mothers they screamed. For revenge and reprisals for another war.'
The videos were taken offline soon after the shooting, but not before they were obtained by RTÉ.ie and made available to view.
Finland has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world, ranking third after the United States and Yemen, according to a study last year by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.
After the last shooting, the Finnish government took some steps to toughen gun regulations. Today it held an emergency meeting of governing coalition party leaders.
Anne Holmlund, Finland's Interior Minister, told a news conference police were alerted to a video the gunman had put on the Internet showing him wielding a handgun at a shooting range but were unable to get in touch with him immediately (watch his YouTube videos).
'Police reached him on Monday, 22 Sept, and asked him to be interviewed regarding the shooting video,' Minister Holmlund said.
She said the gunman, who was not yet identified, had a temporary permit for a .22 calibre pistol but that the permit was not withdrawn.
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'Police action will be examined in more detail later. The gunman had a temporary permit for a .22 calibre pistol, and he had received it in August 2008. It was his first gun.'
Several other people are believed to have been injured in the shooting incident at a catering college in the town of Kauhajoki, about 330km northwest of Helsinki.
The gunman is said to be about 20 years old and is injured and receiving medical attention.
Local authorities said students and staff had been evacuated from the school, where a fire broke out but was later extinguished.
The school, which calls itself the 'Kauhajoki School of Hospitality', had 150 students and 40 teachers as of 2005, according to the official website.
Today's shooting raised the spectre of the killings at Finland's Jokela high school last year, where student Pekka-Eric Auvinen killed six fellow students, the school nurse and the principal after broadcasting his intent with a video on YouTube.
Mr Auvinen shot himself and died later of his injuries.
A search of YouTube yielded four videos filmed by a user who called himself Mr Saari, said he was 22 years old and lived in Kauhajoki.
The YouTube user's profile included the words: 'And suddenly there was war and the mothers they screamed. For revenge and reprisals for another war.'
The videos were taken offline soon after the shooting, but not before they were obtained by RTÉ.ie and made available to view.
Finland has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world, ranking third after the United States and Yemen, according to a study last year by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.
After the last shooting, the Finnish government took some steps to toughen gun regulations. Today it held an emergency meeting of governing coalition party leaders.
