Finland school shooting victims identified

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) -- Forensic experts in Finland have confirmed the identities of each of the 10 victims of a school massacre that caused panic among students and sparked fears of copycat attacks, police said Friday.

Experts had to use dental and DNA records to identify the eight women and two men because some of the victims were badly burned, police spokesman Jari Neulaniemi said.

The 22-year-old gunman, Matti Saari, also died after shooting himself in the head in Tuesday's assault at a vocational college in Kauhajoki, western Finland. It was the Nordic nation's second school massacre in 10 months.

Police say Saari shot his victims with a .22 caliber handgun before setting fire to the classroom. Finland struggles to come to terms with the shooting »

All the women were students; one of the men was a student and the other a teacher. Police did not release the names of the victims.

Neulaniemi said autopsies will be performed in coming days to establish whether the victims died of gunshot wounds or from burns.

Police said the attack bore similarities to a school shooting in November, when an 18-year-old man fatally shot eight people and himself at a high school in southern Finland.

Both gunmen posed with or fired guns in YouTube clips posted before the shootings and used .22-caliber handguns in the attacks -- apparently bought from the same place -- prompting police to investigate potential links between them.

Panic spread among students Thursday as threatening text messages and Internet postings raised fears of new attacks. Worried children and parents jammed telephone help lines and scores of children stayed away from class after threats popped up against schools and students.

While most appeared to be hoaxes, police were taking every threat seriously. The threats appeared to have subsided on Friday, police said.

Tuesday's shooting renewed calls for tighter gun control in Finland, a country with deep traditions of hunting and a high level of civilian gun ownership.

The government said it was working on a proposal to tighten gun laws by giving police greater powers to examine gun applicants' health records.

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