8 killed in Finland shooting; including school’s principal

An 18-year-old student opened fire in a Finnish high school Wednesday, killing seven students and the principal before turning the gun on himself, police said.\nThe teenager, who was not identified, shot himself in the head but survived and was taken to a hospital in “extremely critical condition,” police spokesman Tero Haapala said.\nThe attack at Jokela High School in Tuusula, some 30 miles north of the capital, Helsinki, shocked the Nordic nation, where gun ownership is fairly common by European standards but deadly shootings are rare.\nPolice said at a news conference after the attack that the gunman in Wednesday’s attack shot the victims – five boys, two girls and the female principal – with a .22-caliber pistol. About a dozen other people were injured as they tried to escape the school, police said.\n“He was from an ordinary family,” police chief Matti Tohkanen said about the gunman, who belonged to a gun club and got a license for the pistol Oct. 19. He did not have a previous criminal record, he said.\nFinnish media said the shooter revealed his plans in a YouTube posting before the attack.\nThe video, titled “Jokela High School Massacre,” showed a picture of a building by a lake that appeared to be the high school, along with two photos of a young man holding a handgun. 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.\nThe profile contained a text calling for a “revolution against the system.”\nPolice said they would investigate any possible connection the gunman might have had to the video.\nTerhi Vayrynen, 17, a student at the school told The Associated Press that her brother Henri Vayrynen, 13, and his classmates had witnessed the shooting of the principal outside the school through the classroom window.\nShe said the gunman then came into Henri Vayrynen’s class shouting: “Revolution! Smash everything!”\nWhen no one did anything, he shot the TV and the windows of the class room but did not fire at the students. The he ran out and down the corridor, Terhi Vayrynen said.\nKim Kiuru, a teacher at the school, said the principal announced over the public address system just before noon that all students should remain in their classrooms.\n“After that I saw the gunman running with what appeared to be a small-caliber handgun in his hand through the doors toward me after which I escaped to the corridor downstairs and ran in the opposite direction,” Kiuru told reporters.\nKiuru said he saw a woman’s body as he fled the building.\n“Then my pupils shouted at me out of the windows to ask what they should do and I told them to jump out of the windows ... and all my pupils were saved,” Kiuru said.\nMore than 400 students, from 12 to 18, were enrolled at Jokela, officials said.\nPrime Minister Matti Vanhanen described the situation as “extremely tragic,” and declared Thursday a day of national mourning with flags to be flown half-staff.