Finland -- Panic swept through a middle-school in Kirkkonummi, Finland on Friday after an online threat that it would be the next target for a shooting rampage.
Two days earlier, 18-year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen shot dead six fellow students and two staff members at a school in nearby Tuusula, in a massacre foreshadowed by the gunman in online postings in the days and hours before the shooting.
The Finnish government has since said it would toughen regulations on gun ownership by those aged under 18.
"Yesterday there was a threat on the Internet ... someone posted a note with the username 'Sturmgeist', saying that the next target would be a Kirkkonummi middle school," Maarit Rossi, principal of Kirkkoharju middle school in Kirkkonummi, said on Friday.
"One can imagine how the rumors spread when we have 1,300 pupils in the complex. This did not proceed calmly, there was panic," Rossi told Reuters.
Auvinen, who shot himself in the head after the rampage and died later of his injuries, used "Sturmgeist89" as his username on his postings on the YouTube Web site.
He began making postings on Monday indicating that he planned a massacre at his high school. The last was made less than an hour before the shootings, police said on Friday.
"Sturmgeist" means "storm ghost" in German.
Officials at Kirkkoharju said on Friday they had allowed pupils to leave with parental permission and had suspended regular classes.
"At first I thought it was a joke, but then I started to think about everything that has happened this week. I was scared of going to class," Susanne Cederberg, 17, said at the school.
Police said they regarded the threats aimed at Kirkkonummi, about 70 km (44 miles) from Tuusula, as "a bad joke" but were investigating who posted the message on the Web.
Finnish police visited a second school in Tuusula on Friday to talk to pupils and their parents after rumors of similar threats against it.
In neighboring Sweden, two teenagers were arrested for threatening to kill their high school principal.
"I had two youngsters, 16 and 17 years old. They were arrested," said police chief Christer Seollsted in Soderort, southern Stockholm. "It was a threat to kill."
He said the two were still in custody and a prosecutor would decide later if the matter would go to court.
In Helsinki, the government announced it planned to tighten Finland's gun laws.
The Nordic country, where children as young as 15 have the right to own and use a gun alone, had been resisting European Union plans to limit gun ownership to those aged 18 years or older across the continent.
"The cabinet is ready to agree on a proposal which says that under 18-year-olds can use a gun only under parental or adult guidance," cabinet spokeswoman Sanna Kangasharju said.
Finland has the world's third-highest per capita gun ownership and hunting is widespread, but deadly shootings are rare.
Government officials were also shocked by the new threats. "This is a very serious issue. This is unpleasant, unfair and cruel after such an incident," said Sakari Karjalainen, a senior official at the Ministry of Education.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Finland mourns victims of school shooting
HELSINKI FINLAND - Flags across Finland hung at half-mast on Thursday in mourning for eight people killed by an 18-year-old gunman at a school hours after he posted a video on YouTube foreshadowing a massacre there.
A principal, school nurse and six pupils of Jokela High School were killed when student Pekka-Eric Auvinen opened fire with a .22 caliber handgun in the middle of the school day. He then shot himself in the head.
The teenage gunman, who had a keen interest in war history and extremist movements, died late on Wednesday.
On Thursday police said that one of the dead was the nurse at the school in Tuusula municipality, a town of 35,000 some 60 km (40 miles) from Helsinki. Initially, they had believed seven students and one staff member had been killed.
"It feels so unreal," Helsinki kindergarten teacher Charlotta Andersson said. "You hear about these things happening in America, but not in Finland."
The tragedy in the normally peaceful Nordic nation should make Finland reconsider its campaign against European Union plans to tighten gun ownership laws for youngsters, a senior cabinet member told reporters.
"In my opinion we should reconsider this very seriously," Trade Minister Mauri Pekkarinen said. "I believe we have to critically think over Finland's position one more time. I am ready to take this up in the government."
Although Finland has the world's third-highest per capita gun ownership, deadly shootings are extremely rare because they have a surprisingly tolerant and peaceful society.
Auvinen, who only last month obtained the permit for the gun he used in the shooting, walked "systematically" through the school's corridors, firing into classroom after classroom, according to a teacher at the school.
The YouTube video by Auvinen, set to a hard-driving song called "Stray Bullet," shows a still photo of what appears to be Jokela High School. The photo breaks apart to reveal a red-tinted picture of a man pointing a handgun at the camera.
The clip, which police said was made by the gunman, is entitled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007."
LIVING IN ISOLATION
Across Finland, flags were half-staff and many churches planned services to remember the victims.
Tech-savvy Finns set up mobile telephone text message chains to organize memorials for the victims.
"In the evening at 6 p.m., we are lighting a candle in the kitchen window to remember the victims of school killings. I hope you will join us to remember young pupils and the teacher, who only on Wednesday morning believed in the future," read one such message.
Some Finns said the tragedy argued for tougher gun controls.
"Maybe we were living in a bubble until now and this is a wake-up call. Our country is no more perfect than any other one ... and we can't pretend it is," Helsinki resident Mikko Pyysalo said.
The last major attack in Finland occurred in 2002 when a man killed himself and six others in a bomb blast at a shopping mall in Helsinki. There was another school shooting in 1989 when a 14-year-old pupil shot dead two middle-school children in Rauma, western Finland.
A principal, school nurse and six pupils of Jokela High School were killed when student Pekka-Eric Auvinen opened fire with a .22 caliber handgun in the middle of the school day. He then shot himself in the head.
The teenage gunman, who had a keen interest in war history and extremist movements, died late on Wednesday.
On Thursday police said that one of the dead was the nurse at the school in Tuusula municipality, a town of 35,000 some 60 km (40 miles) from Helsinki. Initially, they had believed seven students and one staff member had been killed.
"It feels so unreal," Helsinki kindergarten teacher Charlotta Andersson said. "You hear about these things happening in America, but not in Finland."
The tragedy in the normally peaceful Nordic nation should make Finland reconsider its campaign against European Union plans to tighten gun ownership laws for youngsters, a senior cabinet member told reporters.
"In my opinion we should reconsider this very seriously," Trade Minister Mauri Pekkarinen said. "I believe we have to critically think over Finland's position one more time. I am ready to take this up in the government."
Although Finland has the world's third-highest per capita gun ownership, deadly shootings are extremely rare because they have a surprisingly tolerant and peaceful society.
Auvinen, who only last month obtained the permit for the gun he used in the shooting, walked "systematically" through the school's corridors, firing into classroom after classroom, according to a teacher at the school.
The YouTube video by Auvinen, set to a hard-driving song called "Stray Bullet," shows a still photo of what appears to be Jokela High School. The photo breaks apart to reveal a red-tinted picture of a man pointing a handgun at the camera.
The clip, which police said was made by the gunman, is entitled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007."
LIVING IN ISOLATION
Across Finland, flags were half-staff and many churches planned services to remember the victims.
Tech-savvy Finns set up mobile telephone text message chains to organize memorials for the victims.
"In the evening at 6 p.m., we are lighting a candle in the kitchen window to remember the victims of school killings. I hope you will join us to remember young pupils and the teacher, who only on Wednesday morning believed in the future," read one such message.
Some Finns said the tragedy argued for tougher gun controls.
"Maybe we were living in a bubble until now and this is a wake-up call. Our country is no more perfect than any other one ... and we can't pretend it is," Helsinki resident Mikko Pyysalo said.
The last major attack in Finland occurred in 2002 when a man killed himself and six others in a bomb blast at a shopping mall in Helsinki. There was another school shooting in 1989 when a 14-year-old pupil shot dead two middle-school children in Rauma, western Finland.
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