STOCKHOLM, September 23 (RIA Novosti) - Ten people were killed and two injured when a gunman opened fire on students at a vocational college in western Finland on Tuesday, national media quoted police as saying.
The assailant, identified by police as Matti Juhani Saari, shot himself and died later in hospital. Saari was a trainee chef at the college.
Tapio Varmola, the principal of the Kauhajoki School of Hospitality, was quoted by the YLE radio station as saying the attacker opened fire on a group of students that were taking a test in class around 11 a.m. local time (08:00 GMT). Some 150 students were on the college premises at the time of the shooting.
Saari had posted several videos on YouTube showing him shooting pistols at a firing range. One of the videos, posted several days ago and now removed, included a message saying: "Whole life is war and whole life is pain. And you will fight alone in your personal war."
Interior Minister Anne Holmlund said the gunman had been questioned by police the previous day over his video clips on YouTube, but had been released due to lack grounds for detention.
The incident resembles a school shooting last November, in which an 18-year-old student shot dead six fellow students, a nurse and the principal before killing himself in the town of Jokela in southern Finland.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent a message to his Finnish counterpart Tarja Halonen conveying his condolences over the tragedy.
