The gunman shot himself in the head and later died from his wounds in hospital, officials said.
The shootings took place in Tuusula, some 50km (30 miles) north of the capital, Helsinki.
Finnish police said an 18-year-old man killed five boys, two girls and the female principal of Jokela High School.
Investigators have reportedly identified the gunman as Pekka-Eric Auvinen.
A teacher said the gunman, who had posted footage foreshadowing the massacre on video-sharing website YouTube, was a student at the school.
Police responded to a call made at 1144 (0944 GMT) and made contact with the gunman when they arrived at the school 11 minutes later, said Timo Leppala, the officer in charge of the police operation.
"Police ordered him to surrender, to which he answered by shooting towards the police," Mr Leppala said.
He described a scene of chaos with students jumping from school windows and running for shelter as more police arrived.
It is not clear when the gunman shot himself in the head.
Police said he was armed with a .22 calibre pistol for which he obtained a license on 19 October. He did not have a criminal record and "was from an ordinary family," a police spokesman said.
A Tuusula municipality spokeswoman said the gunman opened fire during a lesson at Jokela secondary school, which has 400 pupils between 12 and 18.
'Unreal'
Kim Kiuru, a Jokela teacher, said the head teacher announced over the school public announcement's system just before noon (1000 GMT) that all students should remain in their classrooms.
"I stayed in the corridor to listen to more instructions having locked my classroom door," Mr Kiuru told Finland's YLE radio.
"After that I saw the gunman running with what appeared to be a small calibre handgun in his hand through the doors toward me after which I escaped to the corridor downstairs and ran in the opposite direction."
"It felt unreal - a pupil I have taught myself was running towards me, screaming, a pistol in his hand."
Mr Kiuru said he saw a woman's body as he fled the building. He said he then told his students to "jump out of the windows... and all my pupils were saved".
'My war'
The gunman had posted a video called "Jokela high school massacre 11/7/2007" on YouTube in the past two weeks.
The video showed a picture of a building by a lake and photos of him holding a gun.
Going by the username Sturmgeist89, he called himself a "social Darwinist" who would "eliminate all who I see unfit". "Sturmgeist" means storm spirit in German.
The video has now been removed from the website.
He had also reportedly posted on another website a rambling manifesto.
In it he said: "death and killing is not a tragedy... Not all human lives are important or worth saving."
He wrote that he was acting alone and nobody is to blame for his actions. "This is my war: one man's war against humanity, governments and weak-minded masses of the world."
» posted by: SilverMaxwell · date: 3:08am Dec 11 2007
rated: N/A
I second rockinsmurf.
His actions were merely selfish and he decided to play god. The most accurate way to ever know why he commited this crime would be to either speak to him directly, which is impossible now, or some kind of psychiatric evalution.
No matter, whats done is done and true awnser as to who he really was will most likely never be found. I do feel a bit of remourse from him only because in-depth infromat as to why will most likely never be found.
As far as I can tell from what I have read he is an unsuccessful selfish matyr as so many others are who commit actions such as these.
~~~~~~~~~~ Silver Maxwell
Poser ( 63 ) » total items: 2 · total posts: 12 (0.429 / 1.714)
» posted by: rockinsmurf · date: 6:52pm Dec 05 2007
rated: N/A
even though i agree with "not all human lives are important and worth saving" doesn't mean that this stupid fuck has to go to a school and go kill those that "he" considers "unfit"
maybe to him those who he consider "unfit" in ten years from now would've been mankind's saving hand, the one hope of survival, but i guess thanks to this little bitch we wont ever find out. even if your not worth saving with the help of others doesn't mean you can't save yourself.
i completely disagree with that fucker and if i would've been there i would've probably been shot, but i would've at least gouged away one of his fucking eyes to take as a souvenir and thrown up in his face so he would've had a little burning sensation and nice smell to keep going for.
~~~~~~~~~~ absolutely all stupid
Tainted Lord ( 736 ) » total items: 3 · total posts: 33 (0.143 / 0.143)
I hate to break it to some of you, but I really doubt it was at all in any way in his intentions to impress people on alternative communities, or to even tell a story or give some profound message.
O.o You know I was joking? I care less and less about innocent humans each day and even less about the ones who murder them. Sarcasm is the name of my game.
~~~~~~~~~~ "We're like 711, we may not be doin' business but we're always open."
Tainted Apprentice ( 453 ) » total items: 12 · total posts: 33 (0.143 / 0.286)
» posted by: private member · date: 8:31am Nov 10 2007
rated: N/A
I hate to break it to some of you, but I really doubt it was at all in any way in his intentions to impress people on alternative communities, or to even tell a story or give some profound message.
If the video would have been specific or less vague it likely would have given him away and possibly foiled his plan. I know I sure as hell wouldn't try to pitch some deep or involving story or message if I was simply trying to release an ironic and subtle threat.
The name of the game is terrorism. No, not that new-age kind we are all conditioned to believe only comes from Muslims. Striking fear and terror into people's minds. I think that, to alarmists and people who take psychological signals seriously, it was a strong piece of mind-fucking.
But, as I said, I really highly doubt that he intended on impressing anyone with his video. My guess is that if he cared what most of you/us thought he probably wouldn't have even done what he did to begin with. If one is bent up on believing that those around oneself are unworthy or simply idiots, I put my money on thinking that the individual would be glad their peers don't see what he projected.
After all, in the end, isn't that why a lot of us are dying from these people? Most of us seem completely incapable of understanding what is going on inside these people's minds, so they are always one step ahead of us, while we are on the side lines dissecting the most minute and irrelevant details of the insignificant matters surrounding the events.
It is my personal belief that his point was made with the blood of those he slaughtered. To me it says a lot, and I happen to be one of the minds in society that am likely, and possibly even capable, of even doing such things. So, I would have to say "mission accomplished", since I am left feeling even more outrage to an ignorant society for letting him slip through. Since most people in society are not those who are ever even going to do things like this, his message should not be expected to yield a result. After all, those who can't make the connections are the same as those which he referred to as the "enemy". In "war", which he himself said he was in, it never happens that one team psychologically understands their enemy (otherwise there would be no war and there would just be peace).
In laymen's terms, all of you who can't understand why he was thinking this way or why he did it, probably would have been those he killed, or more likely, the reason that he killed. I know that much of the same could be said for myself, and I see no difference for it would be much different for him or anyone else who lashes out this way. Misunderstanding is the greatest cause of such turmoil - misunderstandings from both sides.
Though, on a funny and ironic side note: if you read many articles about this incident, it can be noted that he died later on in the hospital from "head injuries" and not instantly. This indicates an obvious cause: not the brightest when committing suicide. The irony is that he was convinced and believed in social-Darwinism, and he believed that his peers were inferior and that most of humanity is stupid and not even worthy of life. The funny part is, that he couldn't have been too bright himself if he couldn't even kill himself properly. If you use a knife, pills or jump off buildings or anything else there is always a pretty large margin for error. However, if you have a handgun in your hand, you should have no excuse to fail at killing yourself quickly and properly. He did however, probably from one of the oldest suicide-rookie mistakes in the books. Many people who kill themselves by sticking the gun in their mouth do it completely wrong, as he most likely did. Instead of having your gun-hand upside down, with the thumb on the bottom, many other people (probably including him) probably hand his hand right side up, with the thumb up. What this means should be fairly obvious: the odds are your hand is aiming the gun directly at the back of your throat instead of pointing diagonally up at your brain. It is kind of sad, but it seems that we need to have manuals and documentation on the proper ways to kill yourself, because some people don't seem to get it right with the most simple methods. I can't imagine any other reason why a shot to the head couldn't kill instantly other than if he didn't point the gun properly in his mouth. The distressing bit of it all is that he was up on some high pedestal believing he was "the fit" but didn't even kill himself properly. One could also argue that if one was so Darwinianly-fit, that it would not be a part of your brain's thinking to take one's life, otherwise you would contradict the very purpose of natural selection and survival of the fittest. Being such an avid believer of Darwinism as he was made out to be, I have to wonder if these thoughts ever crossed his brain. I guess that just goes to show that even those of us who can be incredibly intelligent in some way(s) are not the brightest penny in the fountain in others.
» posted by: Hideshiseyes · date: 11:32pm Nov 08 2007
rated: N/A
That was probably one of the stupidest videos ever, I'm sorry, I mean the story is sad but WTF is the point of the movie, a few pics of someone holding a gun and a pic of the school. It didn't even tell a story, if I hadn't read this story I'd be like WTF was that about? Cmon, make some kind of point with the movie
~~~~~~~~~~ ~This has been Mike... Peace..
Poop Face ( 117 ) » total items: 4 · total posts: 6 (0.143 / 0.143)
UndyingFantasy (4:02pm): blahblah deceiving pictures blah blah crazy in love blah blah... i don't hear none of this.
stealth member 929 (1:08pm): Haha, UF, take it easy, pics can be very deceiving and I'm crazy in love with my man. But I'm all for a TT-con :-)
UndyingFantasy (8:53am): why not? i deal with people a lot better when i'm high. like.. there's no tension. you'll just have to hide nero from me.. because, man, she's hottt.
stealth member 882 (5:53pm): Haha, TT-con on Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. Sweeeet
UndyingFantasy (7:23am): i wanna gooo. i might actually be in italy around that time this year. if so i'll make the trip.
stealth member 689 (7:42pm): anyone want to go party at cannabis cup this year? I've been thinking about going since it's pretty close to me... I think it's around october/november (you know, the pot festival sponsored by High Times)
3ntropy (9:27pm): oh yeah, dont worry just pic up the san fran chronicle and there will be like 50 ads for doctors that perscribe medical marijuana
3ntropy (9:26pm): UF, Are you talking about cannabis clubs. Cause thats what it sounds like.
3ntropy (9:26pm): UF, Are you talking about cannabis clubs. Cause thats what it sounds like.
times ---
Misunderstanding is the greatest cause of such turmoil - misunderstandings from both sides.
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