FINNISH POLICE suspect the gunman who shot dead 10 people in Kauhajoki this week was carrying out a copycat killing by emulating a school shooting in Finland last November.
They also believe Matti Saari, who carried out the brutal attack at the catering college on Tuesday, may have been in contact with Pekka-Eric Auvinen, the 18-year-old high school student who shot and killed eight people in last year's Jokela massacre.
Jari Neulaniemi, the lead police investigator, said yesterday it was "very likely" the two gunmen were in contact before last year's high school shooting in Jokela because they had bought their guns in the same city.
"We don't have that information right now but it would not be a surprise if we found that out," he added.
His comments came during a day of mourning in Finland, where people grieved over a school massacre for the second time in a year.
Saari shot dead nine students and a teacher during a 90-minute attack before setting fire to the classroom. The bodies of nine of his victims are so badly burned that police say it could take more than a week to identify them.
Kauhajoki locals yesterday said they couldn't believe what had happened in their normally sleepy town. All day they gathered at the college gates to light candles and lay flowers for the victims under the shadow of a Finnish flag flying at half mast.
"I thought it was a dream until I came down here to see for myself," said Susanna Keranen (19), a former student at the catering and tourism college who knew Saari. "He was a happy, normal, young guy. There was nothing special about him."
Another college student, Joni Helminen, told journalists about his lucky escape when he left the classroom just minutes before the attack took place. "You could always talk to him about anything. He was very clever and did well at school."
But police painted a different picture of Saari. They said he was motivated by hate and described how he left notes saying that he hated the human race and had been planning the attack since 2002.
In linking the attack in Kauhajoki to the school shooting last November in Jokela perpetrated by Pekka-Eric Auvinen, they said both young men were obsessed with guns and posted videos on the internet.
"There is a pattern in the way he [ Saari] imitated very precisely the manners and ways the shooter did it almost a year ago," said Kaj Engstrom, a vicar who specialises in counselling with the National Bureau of Investigations in Finland.
Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen announced a new crackdown on Finland's lax gun laws amid mounting criticism of government inaction. Despite pledging last year to tackle the issue in the wake of the Jokela massacre, little was done to make firearms harder to obtain.