People attend a memorial service in Kauhajoki Church in the evening in Kauhajoki, western Finland, yesterday. A masked gunman whose violent YouTube postings prompted police to question him on Monday opened fire yesterday at his trade school in western Finland, killing 10 people and burning some of their bodies before shooting himself in the head. - AP

KAUHAJOKI, Finland (AP):

A masked gunman whose violent YouTube postings prompted police to question him just a day earlier opened fire yesterday at his trade school in western Finland, killing 10 people and burning some of their bodies before shooting himself in the head.

Finnish media identified the gunman as Matti Juhani Saari, a 22-year-old student at the school, which offers courses in catering, tourism, nursing and home economics.

Regular and calm guy

"He was just a regular and calm guy. Nothing outstanding. He had lots of friends. Nothing that would have given an idea that something like this would happen," student Susanna Keranen told an AP television crew outside the school.

Witnesses said panic broke out as the gunman, Saari, dressed in black and carrying a large bag, entered the school in Kauhajoki and started firing in a classroom where students were taking an exam. The shootings began just before 11 a.m. local time, as about 150 students were at the Kauhajoki School of Hospitality, 180 miles (300 kilometres) northwest of Helsinki.

"I heard several dozen rounds of shots, in other words it was an automatic pistol," school janitor Jukka Forsberg told Finnish broadcaster YLE. "I saw some female students who were wailing and moaning and one managed to escape out the back door."

Saari