Day of mourning in Finland
- 00:02:02
- ITN
Day of mourning in Finland
A day of mourning has been called in Finland after the second school massacre there in a year. Matti Saari killed ten students at a catering college before shooting himself. He had been interviewed by police after posting a video of himself firing a pistol on YouTube. The 22-year-old, started a fire in the school at Kauhajoki and then shot himself in the head. He died later in Tampere University Hospital. Sanna Orvana, 17, was nearby when the shooting started. She said: "I didn't know what was going on when he was shooting. I was just like 'oh well, someone is just kidding' and then after a few minutes one of my class mates went outside to check what he was doing, and he was like going to shoot them and they ran away." Ms Orvana said she had lived in Kauhajoki all her life but wasn't sure the place was safe anymore. In an echo of last year's deadly rampage at Finland's Jokela high school, Saari posted menacing comments and videos of himself wielding a gun on the Internet in the run-up the massacre, prompting police to question him on Monday. Police Chief Superintendent Urpo Lintala confirmed they had interviewed Saari after some information on the internet had appeared. Asked about the questioning and the subsequent release, Mr Lintala said an investigation was under way into why Saari was let go. He said: "I'm not the officer who let him go but we are investigating why it all happened so that he went off then." The Finnish government said grief counsellors were on site and giving support to students, teachers and relatives. Finnish president Tarja Halonen spoke to reporters about the shooting while attending the General Assembly at the United Nations (UN) in New York. She said: "I send my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims in the shooting incidence and I express also my sympathy for those injured and also to all of those who are touched by this tragedy."
ITN | September 24, 2008
