| HELSINKI - Finns at Sunday church services mourned the victims of a school massacre in which a lone gunman killed nine fellow students and a teacher before shooting himself.
President Tarja Halonen and government members attended a memorial service broadcast live on radio and television nationwide from the western town of Kauhajoki, where the 22-year-old gunman shot and set fire to his victims at a vocational college on Tuesday.
Hundreds of people packed the church. Outside, flags flew half-staff in the windy autumn morning.
It was the second school shooting in less than a year. In November, an 18-year-old student fatally shot eight people and himself at a high school in southern Finland.
In what appeared to be copycat attacks, both gunmen fired guns in YouTube clips posted before the shootings, shot themselves in the head and used .22-caliber handguns in the massacres — bought from the same store. They also said they hated the human race.
Politicians, social workers and religious leaders have urged tighter gun laws and more vigilance of Internet sites, and more social bonding in the small Nordic nation, known for high suicide rates, heavy drinking and domestic violence.
“Sadness has descended on all of us. It’s time for serious self-reflection,” said Bishop Simo Peura, who led the Kauhajoki memorial service, 180 miles (290 kilometers) northwest of Helsinki. “Should we be doing something completely different? What kind of society are we building?”
Police said Matti Saari, a culinary student at the school, had wanted to kill as many people as possible.
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said the government will decide on measures to restrict access to guns in the nation of 5.3 million which has 1.6 million firearms in private hands. It ranks among the top five nations in the world in civilian gun ownership.
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