Nine Dead in Finnish School Shooting

Nine people were killed after a gunman opened fire on fellow students at a vocational college in western Finland on Tuesday. Finnish authorities confirmed police questioned the man a day before the massacre.

The shooting in the town of Kauhajoki, some 300 kilometers (190 miles) northwest of the capital Helsinki, caused panic and led to chaotic scenes at the vocational college.

Finnish Interior Minister Anne Holmlund told a news conference Finnish police spoke to the gunman who killed nine people a day before he carried out the attack, because of a video he had posted on YouTube. 

The video showed the gunman wielding a handgun at a shooting range. 

"Police reached him on Monday, Sept. 22, and asked him to be interviewed regarding the shooting video," Holmlund said.

Gunman attempted suicide

The suspected gunman, thought to be a 20-year-old student, was believed to have also turned the gun on himself, but survived the suicide attempt, police and the local mayor's office said.

"He shot himself, but he's not dead. He's injured," Ari Paananen, at the Kauhajoki mayor's office, told news agency AFP, amid conflicting reports indicating that he had killed himself.

Police and local media said the man was taken to a hospital in Tampere with serious head wounds.

The shooting began at around 11:00 am local time and lasted for about an hour and a half, according to Paananen.

Fire broke out at school

"The situation is over," he said, confirming reports that the school was on fire, "but it's under control."

A fire brigade duty officer said a fire had been started in several locations around the school.

There were some 200 students in the building at the trade school where the shooting was reported, YLE said.

A school teacher was quoted as telling YLE that several students had been hit but had no details of their injuries. Police ordered students to evacuate the school.

In November 2007, a Finnish high school student killed eight people in a school shooting before killing himself.

The November shooting at Jokela, 60 kilometers north of Helsinki, triggered a series of threats against schools in Finland and its Nordic neighbors.