Finns, Swedes Fear Copycat School Gunman Attacks
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=27231
KAUHAJOKI, Finland - Bomb threats and a flurry of menacing mobile phone
messages sparked panic Thursday among students in Finland, as fears grew
that copycat attacks would follow the nation's second school massacre in
10
months.
In neighboring Sweden, police arrested a 16-year-old-boy for a suspicious
clip he had posted on YouTube and urged residents to re****t any
threatening
Internet postings to police.
Finnish police said text message threats were being spread around the
western town of Kauhajoki, where a masked gunman killed 10 people and
himself in a fiery rampage on Tuesday.
"The text messages are threatening in nature and are causing fear and
hysteria among young people, and we must stop them," police spokesman Urpo
Lintula said.
He declined to give details on the content of messages, but said Finland
saw
a similar wave of threats after the previous school shooting at Jokela
high
school near Helsinki last year.
Finnish media said several schools across the nation had received bomb
threats, and that one school had been evacuated.
Police Commissioner Mikko Paatero told Finnish MTV3 that Finland could
face
more copycat school shootings. "I badly fear it's possible," he said.
Investigators said they were probing possible links between the Kauhajoki
gunman, Matti Saari, 22, and 18-year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who fatally
shot eight people and himself at a high school in southern Finland in
November.
In Sweden, police raided the teen's home in Koping, central Sweden, after
seeing the YouTube clip, according to police spokesman Borje Stromberg. He
couldn't immediately confirm the contents of the clip. The boy was
arrested
for illegal weapon possession.
In a message Thursday on its web site, Swedish police urged people to
re****t
any Internet postings that could be seen as "warning signals of planned
crimes."
Finnish investigators said Auvinen and Saari likely bought their guns at
the
same place and could even have been in contact with each other.
"The cases were similar. They were the same type of person, so it could be
possible," investigation leader Jari Neulaniemi told The Associated Press.
"They had the same style of hair, same kind of clothing, same interests
and
ideals - and their deeds were the same."
Both gunmen posted violent clips on YouTube before the shootings, both
were
fascinated by the 1999 Columbine school shootings in Colorado, both
attacked
their own schools and both died after shooting themselves in the head.
But Neulaniemi stressed that police had not been able to confirm a link
between the shooters.
"We have (Saari's) computer in our possession, but the Jokela case was
almost a year ago, and we don't yet know how far back the data go. We
haven't
examined the computer or the telephone records," he said.
The government pledged to tighten Finland's gun laws and keep mentally
unstable people from obtaining firearms after Saari's rampage at the
Kauhajoki School of Hospitality, 180 miles (290 kilometers) northwest of
Helsinki.
Interior Minister Anne Holmlund said a new proposal would give police
greater powers to examine gun applicants' health records.
Finland has deeply held hunting traditions and ranks - along with the
United
States - among the top five nations when it comes to civilian gun
owner****p.
After the previous massacre, the government had pledged to raise the age
for
buying a gun from 15 to 18 but never did so.
The government also called for an investigation into police handling of
the
case. After an anonymous tip, police had questioned Saari on Monday about
YouTube clips that showed him firing a handgun, but said they found no
reason to hold him.
Police were searching for a person who appeared to have filmed some of
Saari's
YouTube clips but said there was no indication Saari had an accomplice.
Saari killed eight female students, one male teacher and one male student.
A
21-year-old woman that Saari shot in the head is still hospitalized after
having two operations.
Police said Saari had left a message saying he had planned an attack for
six
years and wanted to kill as many people as possible.
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