Finland mourns students

FINLAND:Finnish politicians have said Helsinki may drop its opposition to EU plans to tighten gun control laws as the country struggles to deal with Wednesday's school shooting which left nine dead.

Flags flew at half mast in mourning for the victims of the massacre, announced in advance on the internet by the gunman, Pekka-Eric Auvinen (18).

From the early hours yesterday, shocked students braved icy winds and sleet to lay flowers and light candles at the gate of the yellow Joekla high school building in the Tuusula municipality, 60km (37.28 miles) from Helsinki.

At 10am, the growing crowd observed a three-minute silence.

"My best friend died here yesterday, I haven't really grasped it yet," said Rosa Sareharju, a student of the school. "I can't describe my feelings, I don't know what they are myself."

The final death toll from the school shooting is nine, including five male students, one female student, the school nurse and the headmistress. Police said many of the victims had been shot up to 20 times after Auvinen stood up in class on Wednesday morning and pulled out a .22 calibre handgun. He walked through the corridors, shooting at random, before shooting the principal as she warned students over the intercom.

As police surrounded the school, Auvinen first tried and failed to set fire to the building before shooting himself in the head. He later died from his injuries in hospital. Twelve students were injured in the attack, 11 from glass injuries after jumping through windows to escape.

Investigators were frustrated yesterday in their search for a motive. "He decided to commit a random, incomprehensible act and to kill himself afterwards," said Rabbe von Hertzen, an inspector with Finland's National Bureau of Investigation at a news conference.

Apparently anticipating the search for blame, Auvinen posted to the internet: "Don't blame my parents or my friends. Don't blame the movies I see, the music I hear, the games I play or the books I read.

"No, they had nothing to do with this. This is my war: a one-man war." Classmates described him as a good student who had become withdrawn in recent months, with an increasing interest in Hitler, Stalin and Nietzsche. "He didn't have many good friends while at the school, he was often alone," said Miro Lukinmaa (18), a friend for 11 years.

The massacre has shaken Finland, where school shootings were associated exclusively with the US, a horror unthinkable in Finnish schools, which are considered the world's best.

All Finnish schools have nurses with psychological training; the Jokeba school even had a full-time psychologist, but Auvinen still slipped through the net.

After an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday, trade minister Mauri Pekkarinen suggested it was time for Finland, with the world's third-highest per capita gun ownership, to give up its opposition to tighter EU restrictions on gun ownership.

"In my opinion we should reconsider this very seriously," he said. Interior ministry officials, however, said the current police-issued permit system worked well.