Mooseman
Isengar Tussle
Unfortunately, this phenomenon seems to be world wide.
HELSINKI, Finland (CNN) -- At least seven people were reported killed when an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at a school in Finland Wednesday, in a shooting that appeared to have been planned out in graphic videos posted on Internet sharing site YouTube.
Medical officials told CNN affiliate MTV that the headmistress of the school in Tuusula, near Helsinki, was among the dead.
The suspected shooter is in a critical condition at Toolo Hospital, Dr. Eeero Hirvensalo told CNN. He did not say how the man was injured.
At least 12 people sustained minor injuries and "are in no danger now," Hirvensalo said.
The shooting, believed to be the first of its kind in Finland's history, was claimed to be the work of Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who has also published a manifesto demanding war on the "weak-minded masses" and pledged to die for his cause.
YouTube appeared to have removed 89 videos linked to his account, many of them featuring Nazi imagery, shortly after the incident.
The school involved in the shooting was identified as Jokela High, attended by more than 400 students, aged between 12 and 18.
A video posted on YouTube earlier Wednesday, by a user identified as "Sturmgeist89", was titled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007."
The video showed a picture of the school which then disintegrated to reveal an image of a man resembling Auvinen against a red background, pointing a gun at the screen.
The clip is accompanied by the track "Stray Bullet", by rock band KMFDM, whose lyrics were also quoted by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the students behind the Columbine High School massacre of 1999.
Sturmgeist89 also posted videos of the same person shooting an apple in a wood with a handgun, as well as clips from the Nazi Nuremburg rallies.
Jarkko Sipila, a reporter with MTV, told CNN that the shooting happened around noon Finnish time (1000 GMT) in the quiet town around 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Helsinki.
Sipila said some of the pupils had fled to a nearby elementary school while police surrounded and sealed off the high school. Finnish news agency STT carried police comments that they had been fired at.
The Associated Press reported comments from Kim Kiuru, one of the school's teachers, on radio station YLE.
Kiuru described how the headmistress used the public address system around noon to tell pupils to stay in classrooms.
He said he locked his classroom door, then waited in the corridor for more news.
"After that I saw the gunman running with what appeared to be a small-caliber handgun in his hand through the doors towards me, after which I escaped to the corridor downstairs and ran in the opposite direction, " Kiuru said.
The agency reported Kiuru as saying that he saw a woman's body as he fled the school, before telling his pupils to leave the building through the windows.
He added that the gunman is thought to have had a fascination with dictatorial figures such as Hitler and Stalin.
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Sipila said that Finland, which has a population of about five million, has around two million firearms, although gun laws are tough. "We do not know where he got it from," he said.
Police are scheduled to give a press conference at around 1500GMT
HELSINKI, Finland (CNN) -- At least seven people were reported killed when an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at a school in Finland Wednesday, in a shooting that appeared to have been planned out in graphic videos posted on Internet sharing site YouTube.
Medical officials told CNN affiliate MTV that the headmistress of the school in Tuusula, near Helsinki, was among the dead.
The suspected shooter is in a critical condition at Toolo Hospital, Dr. Eeero Hirvensalo told CNN. He did not say how the man was injured.
At least 12 people sustained minor injuries and "are in no danger now," Hirvensalo said.
The shooting, believed to be the first of its kind in Finland's history, was claimed to be the work of Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who has also published a manifesto demanding war on the "weak-minded masses" and pledged to die for his cause.
YouTube appeared to have removed 89 videos linked to his account, many of them featuring Nazi imagery, shortly after the incident.
The school involved in the shooting was identified as Jokela High, attended by more than 400 students, aged between 12 and 18.
A video posted on YouTube earlier Wednesday, by a user identified as "Sturmgeist89", was titled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007."
The video showed a picture of the school which then disintegrated to reveal an image of a man resembling Auvinen against a red background, pointing a gun at the screen.
The clip is accompanied by the track "Stray Bullet", by rock band KMFDM, whose lyrics were also quoted by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the students behind the Columbine High School massacre of 1999.
Sturmgeist89 also posted videos of the same person shooting an apple in a wood with a handgun, as well as clips from the Nazi Nuremburg rallies.
Jarkko Sipila, a reporter with MTV, told CNN that the shooting happened around noon Finnish time (1000 GMT) in the quiet town around 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Helsinki.
Sipila said some of the pupils had fled to a nearby elementary school while police surrounded and sealed off the high school. Finnish news agency STT carried police comments that they had been fired at.
The Associated Press reported comments from Kim Kiuru, one of the school's teachers, on radio station YLE.
Kiuru described how the headmistress used the public address system around noon to tell pupils to stay in classrooms.
He said he locked his classroom door, then waited in the corridor for more news.
"After that I saw the gunman running with what appeared to be a small-caliber handgun in his hand through the doors towards me, after which I escaped to the corridor downstairs and ran in the opposite direction, " Kiuru said.
The agency reported Kiuru as saying that he saw a woman's body as he fled the school, before telling his pupils to leave the building through the windows.
He added that the gunman is thought to have had a fascination with dictatorial figures such as Hitler and Stalin.
advertisement
Sipila said that Finland, which has a population of about five million, has around two million firearms, although gun laws are tough. "We do not know where he got it from," he said.
Police are scheduled to give a press conference at around 1500GMT