Kauhajoki, Finland, School Shooting Leaves 9 Dead

A student with an automatic weapon fired on fellow trade school students in Kauhajoki, Finland, this morning and is believed to have killed 9 of them, the Belfast Telegraph reported. A teacher at the school reported seeing at least 10 people shot, according to Finland's television station YLE. A Finnish journalist told CNN that the school is on fire in the aftermath of the shootings.

The student shooter is alive but hospitalized in grave condition after turning the gun on himself.

This gun attack is the second school massacre in Finland in less than a year. In November 2007, a Finnish high school student in Tuusala, Finland shot 9 classmates before shooting himself to death.

Today's incident may have been forshadowed by a Youtube video that local media reports in Finland contend is linked to the shooting. In the video, posted 5 days ago but since taken down, a man with a handgun fired the gun repeatedly at a pistol range in a location identified as Kauhajoki.

"Whole life is war and whole life is pain. And you will fight alone in your personal war," the Youtube post reportedly said.

The Youtube video may have been created by the student shooter according to CNN. Police in Finland questioned the poster about the video yesterday but did not detain him. They are now investigating whether he is the shooter.

When the Tuusala shooting occurred last November, the residents of Finland reacted with shock. Although Finland is a nation of gun owners, gun violence had been rare and massacres such as that at Tuusala unheard of. With a second violent school massacre in less than one year, authorities in Finland may need to reconsider their stance on the prevalence of gun ownership.