School shooting in Finland - 9 Dead confirmed

Ducky

Master of the Moos
Moderator
from reuters.com

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSHEL00597220071107

TUUSULA, Finland (Reuters) - At least seven people died when a gunman opened fire at a school in southern Finland on Wednesday, hours after a video was posted on YouTube predicting a school massacre.

A teacher at Jokela High School told Reuters the gunman was one of its pupils.

"At this moment its seven (deaths) or more, higher," Dr Eero Hirvensalo, the head of the medical response team, told Reuters.

The YouTube video, set to hard-driving music, shows a still photo of a school that appears to be Jokela High School. The photo then fragments to reveal a red-tinted picture of a man pointing a gun at the camera.

Three people were wounded in the shooting, according to early reports. One of those shot was the school principal, said Tuula Panula, spokeswoman for the Tuusula municipality, some 60 km (40 miles) from the Finnish capital Helsinki.

"He (the gunman) was moving systematically through the school hallways, knocking on the doors and shooting through the doors," Kim Kiuru, a teacher at the school, said at the scene.

"It felt unreal, a pupil I have taught myself was running towards me, screaming, a pistol in his hand."

The YouTube video is entitled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007" and was posted by a user called Sturmgeist89. "Sturmgeist" means storm spirit in German.
Police surrounded the school and a city official announced shortly before 9:00 a.m. EST that the siege was over.

Junior Constable Olli Laine said earlier police had evacuated students from the building, which houses both a middle and a high school.

Kiuru, who was teaching a grade 8 class when the shooting started, said he helped his pupils escape the building through the classroom windows.

Despite having the third-largest per capita ratio of handgun ownership in the world, violent incidents are rare at Finnish schools.

According to Finnish media, there have been four stabbings at schools since 1999. None of these caused fatalities.

The last major attack in the country came in 2002 when a young man killed including himself and six others in a bomb blast at a shopping mall in Helsinki.


----

:( So sad that this kind of behaviour has already come to this country. Last week some kid hit another kid with a knife. The traditional Finnish weapon.

YouTube vids and account has removed

I read piece of that guy's writing and - I don't have much to say. What an ideology he had :rolleyes:

Published even his plan in Finnish and English.
 
Re: School shooting in Finland

Well, thats just sick. Some people just doesn´t have enough braincells in their head. :(
 
Re: School shooting in Finland

It makes me so sad to read this. WHY with how common it is hasn't anyone figured out a way to STOP it?! That one in the States was just a few weeks ago, wasn't it? And there was one here in Canada last fall...it's ridiculous.

My thoughts go out to those who were injured and the families of those who were lost.
 
Re: School shooting in Finland

So now the official number is 9 dead - including the shooter, who died bit after 10pm last night.

There's been talk that VT shooting and the other recent one were kind of things that he took example of.
 
Re: School shooting in Finland

My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims' families, and the survivors. Every massacre is traumatic and removes a little piece of humanity, regardless of what city, state, province, territory or country.
 
What scares me is the fact that before such incidents there´re often warnings. Nevertheless such incidents are not really avoided. :eek:
 
Like here and people had seen the vid but no one reacted :(

One thing I am mad about is the media and TV going to interview those teens that were in the building or their friend died because can't you goddamn see they are in shock!? Grrrr.
 
You've gotta wonder why people don't notice. A guy that disturbed? Someone should have soptted the signs, we have professionals to do just that.

But, I suppose, people don't want to believe it can happen in their town.

It shouldn't.
 
Ok, The Times pulled like the worst,stereotype article ever :lol:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article2828084.ece

And I think it's bit ironic that it's very, very hard to get a handgun - he got it because was member of a club.

Rifles and stuff are different because you only need to be 15 - but I guess you notice better if someone comes to school with shotgun.

Anyways...
 
After reading that article:

- I play way to many violent video games
- I practise "a violent sport" (Kung Fu)
- I am kinda of a real geek
- I like to be on my own
- I was badly teased in grammer and high school
- The contact of most of my friends is mostly virtual
(allthough I do know everyone in real life except a few but non the less)
- I am obsessed with tv shows that have murder as the main theme :rolleyes:

I must be a really risky girl for a school shootout...
(no I am very happy with my life and I will not go out and shoot people!)

School shootings and afterwards always... the articles... they're always the same. stereotype nonsense.
 
THat was more like "Finnish stereotype" - which is bad :p

(even tho I Dec I left to school in dark and came home in the dark :p - but I do have friends also in wintertime)
 
DaWacko said:
Ok, The Times pulled like the worst,stereotype article ever :lol:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article2828084.ece

And I think it's bit ironic that it's very, very hard to get a handgun - he got it because was member of a club.

Rifles and stuff are different because you only need to be 15 - but I guess you notice better if someone comes to school with shotgun.

Anyways...
Thanks for the link, DaWacko. I'm American, so my comment is coming from the perspective of living with American media, both mainstream and independent. It seems as though that paper has one thing to say, and they'll word it the way they want to in order to convince people what they say is right.

Did that make sense? It's like you said: They're falling back on stereotypes in place of searching for real journalistic stories. The article basically generalizes that all tech-savvy Finnish kids who like YouTube, MySpace, texting, violence and the internet are destined to become murderers. To be frank, I'm surprised they didn't throw in death metal references. Whenever there's a US shooting, the media pounces on the shooter's/killer's musical selection. :rolleyes:
 
^^ And Finland probably has most metal bands per capita :p

I was expecting that too - wonder when police will knock behind my door when I listen to metal :eek:

Like the comments to that article said - guy needs an update to his Finnish Facts :rolleyes:

I think another sad thing related to this case is that Facebook has now groups that "understand" this shooter and admire that and same with YouTube - with the vids. Of course they remove those as fast as they can but the new ones appear all the time
 
DaWacko said:
THat was more like "Finnish stereotype" - which is bad :p

(even tho I Dec I left to school in dark and came home in the dark :p - but I do have friends also in wintertime)

I know that the article and you both were talking about the finish stereotype. But they alsways seem to involve some kind of stereotype nonsense... That is what I meant with my part!

And uh the dark is cool. It is more cosy and makes you appreciate the spring sun! It is getting dark here pretty early to now!
 
DaWacko said:
I think another sad thing related to this case is that Facebook has now groups that "understand" this shooter and admire that and same with YouTube - with the vids. Of course they remove those as fast as they can but the new ones appear all the time

That's sick. That makes me want to be physically sick. And that article is ridiculous; according to it I could probably be considered a potential mass murderer as well. I know that with how advanced our society is and how advanced our education systems are we can figure out who is at risk for this kind of behaviour by more than just what's mentioned there. It's pathetic.
 
Back
Top