8 Killed, 10 Injured in Finland High School Shooting

World | November 7, 2007, Wednesday // 00:00
Bulgaria, Finland, school, shooting: 8 Killed, 10 Injured in Finland High School Shooting Students at Jokela High School in Finland were taken to a hastily organised crisis centre after the deadly shooting. Photo by BBC

Eight people were killed and another ten injured when a gunman opened fire at a school near Helsinki, in the first such shooting in Finland since 1989, Bloomberg reported late on Wednesday.

The dead included five boys, two girls and the school principal, police said at a news conference.

The school principal was identified as Helena Kalmi, a municipal spokeswoman said.

The children hurt have already been hospitalised and treated for light injuries. None of them were shot, though one had a "shooting-related'' injury.

The attacker is in critical condition after shooting himself in the head, doctors said.

The incident, which began around noon local time and ended about 3 pm, occurred after an 18-year-old man, carrying a handgun, opened fire on people in the school and at police.

No further details on the deadly shooting have been revealed so far.

Earlier in the day, it emerged that a video posted on YouTube has been linked to the massacre at Jokela High School.

The video, set to hard-driving music, shows a still photo of a school that appears to be the scene of the shooting.

The photo then fragments to reveal a red-tinted picture of a man pointing a gun at the camera.

Jarkko Sipila, a reporter with MTV, told CNN that the shooting happened around noon Finnish time (10:00 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.

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