Kauhajoki school shooting
| Kauhajoki school shooting | |
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A scene of the Kauhajoki vocational college campus a few hours after the shooting.
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| Location | Kauhajoki, Western Finland |
| Coordinates | 62°25′45″N 022°10′54″E / 62.42917°N 22.18167°ECoordinates: 62°25′45″N 022°10′54″E / 62.42917°N 22.18167°E |
| Date | 23 September 2008 c. 10:40 a.m.–c. 12:30 p.m. (UTC+3) |
| Target | Kauhajoki School of Hospitality |
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Attack type
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School shooting, mass murder, murder-suicide, arson |
| Weapons |
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| Deaths | 11 (including the perpetrator) |
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Non-fatal injuries
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11 (1 by gunfire) |
| Perpetrator | Matti Juhani Saari |
| Motive | "Hatred for mankind" |
The Kauhajoki school shooting occurred on 23 September 2008, at the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences in Western Finland. The gunman, 22-year-old student Matti Juhani Saari, shot and fatally injured ten people with a Walther P22 semi-automatic pistol, before shooting himself in the head. He died a few hours later in Tampere University Hospital. One woman was injured but was in a stable condition.
The shooting took place at the Kauhajoki School of Hospitality, owned by the Seinäjoki Municipal Federation of Education. The facilities and campus were shared between the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences and the Seinäjoki Vocational Education Centre – Sedu. Saari was a second-year student in a Bachelor of Hospitality Management degree programme.
The incident was the second school shooting in less than a year in Finland, the other being the Jokela school shooting in November 2007, in which nine people including the gunman died. Before that, only one other school shooting had taken place in the country's history, in Rauma in 1989, leaving two people dead.
Saari entered through the school buildings via the basement. The shooting began at around 10:40 (UTC+3), when roughly 200 people were assembled inside the college. The emergency services received their first call at 10:46. Saari was armed with a .22 LR calibre Walther P22 Target semi-automatic firearm and homemade Molotov cocktails. He wore dark clothing and a balaclava (ski mask). The school's caretaker Jukka Forsberg, who had several shots directed at him but survived, said "[The gunman] was very well prepared. He walked calmly."
Saari initially opened fire on a group of students taking a business studies exam, and entered at least one other classroom. According to the three students who were able to escape the exam room (there were roughly 20 students taking the exam), Saari had approached his victims individually before shooting them. It was also said that he was revelling in the situation and was acting very aggressively. Saari encountered little resistance, and the massacre was concluded relatively quickly. He then covered the classroom in a flammable liquid, believed to be petrol, and set the room alight.
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