Panic grips Finnish school in copy-cat gun scare

[JenGC]

Panic grips Finnish school in copy-cat gun scare

Panic swept a school in southern Finland on Friday after an online threat that it would be the next target for a shooting rampage, the school's principal said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0964594120071109

How horrible.

[StarryEyedLad]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071111/wl_afp/finlandcrimeshootingschool_071111223519;_ylt=ApFBD e5GvEPGkwGe90A2TZuQOrgF



Finnish police arrest youth after YouTube massacre threat
Sun Nov 11, 5:35 PM ET

HELSINKI (AFP) - Finnish police have detained a teenage boy who allegedly posted a video on YouTube threatening a massacre similar to the one that occurred last week at a high school in Finland.

The 16-year-old was arrested on Friday in Maaninka, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Helsinki, and questioned the following day, a police spokesman said. Authorities also seized his computer.

Titled "Maaninka massacre", the video is about 30 seconds long and shows the teenager's "school and a person with a weapon in hand", the spokesman said.

He said the teen had told police "it was a joke, that he had no intention" of carrying out the massacre. The suspect remains under investigation, although police have not said whether he was still in custody.

Eight people, including five teenage boys, the headmistress, a female nurse and a single mother, were killed in Wednesday's shooting at Jokela high school in southern Finland.

The shooter, 18-year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen, also shot himself and later died of his injuries.

Finns paid tribute to the victims in church services nationwide Sunday. A mass at a church in Tuusula, the city of 35,000 where the tragedy occurred, was broadcast live on public television.

Police said Auvinen had posted a video threat on YouTube, a video-sharing website, two days before the shooting spree.

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