Pekka-Eric Auvinen was not the last.

‘YouTube’ gunman kills nine in shooting spree at Finnish vocational college

Finland was rocked by its second school massacre in under a year today when a copycat “YouTube killer” went on a rampage in a remote western town, killing ten people at a catering and tourism college.

Update

Helsingin Sanomat reports that 11 people are now dead, including Saari himself.

Police said that the gunman, 22-year-old Matti Juhani Saari, shot himself in the head and was rushed to Tampere University Hospital. Saari died at the hospital around 5 p.m. local time, becoming the 10th fatality of the incident. At least one person remains in a serious condition in the hospital. Most of the injured persons suffered only minor injuries, in many cases while trying to make their escape from the school building.

Matti Saari had previously used YouTube to post videos of himself shooting a Walther P22 handgun. The videos were taken down about two hours after the shooting began.

The incident began at 11am at the School of Hospitality in Kauhajoki, which is about 180 miles (300km) northwest of Helsinki.

Local reports said that the attacker, dressed in black, entered the school carrying a large bag only a few minutes before the shooting started.

Both the state broadcaster YLE and the TT news agency said that nine people were killed in the attack, citing police sources.

The shootings occurred almost a year after Pekka-Eric Auvinen, 18, shot dead eight people including the headmistress, at a high school in the southern town of Jokela, before shooting himself.

The Finnish Government has since dropped its objection to a European Union directive setting a minimum age limit on firearm ownership, although ministers said that the decision was not linked to the Jokela shooting. With 1.6 million firearms in private hands, Finland has the world’s third highest rate of gun ownership, behind only the United States and Yemen.

Saari’s YouTube page had four videos showing himself dressed in black or dark colors, firing at a shooting range with a Walther P22 handgun.

Matti Saari posted under the username Wumpscut86 (after Bavarian electro-industrial DJ Wumpscut).

He includes some of his lyrics on his profile:

“And suddenly there was war and the mothers they screamed. For revenge and reprisals for another war.”

Saari also posted videos on another website, including one where he points at the camera and declares, in English, “You will die next”, before firing his weapon repeatedly.

According to BBC News, police were set to interview Saari after seeing his YouTube videos, and also noting that some of his favorites were the 1999 Columbine shootings.