London, Sept. 26 : The YouTube gunman who carried out a mass school shooting in Finland telephoned a friend as he slaughtered his classmates.

Killer Matti Saari, 22, had boasted 18 months ago that he was going to shoot many people in a school, but later claimed to be joking.

Only three people escaped from the classroom where Saari, a trainee chef, opened fire at a vocational college in Kauhajoki, Finland on Tuesday.

Ten people died before the gunman killed himself.

The Telegraph quoted a friend, who gave his name as Rauno, as saying: "He rang and announced in a perfectly calm voice that he had shot 10 people at the school and he was calling to say goodbye. He said that he was going to kill himself and he wanted his body cremated afterwards.”

"I asked him several times to repeat what he had just said and he did. Finally, he said something like ''goodbye, mate''."

The survivors have told police that Saari went round executing people one by one as they cowered on the floor and seemed to be "enjoying it".

It has been revealed that Saari was friends with Pekka-Eric Auvinen, 18, who carried out a remarkably similar shooting at a school in the Finnish town of Jokela last year. Auvinen killed eight people and himself last November.

They played virtual war games together and plotted their crimes with each other on the Internet.

It was also revealed that Saari had been thrown out of the Finnish Army in 2006 after only a month when he terrified fellow recruits by opening fire against orders in a woodland exercise.

Saari carried out his rampage in Kauhajoki, 150 miles from Jokela.

Police fear Finland could now be facing a network of other potential school killers linked by the Internet.

A series of copycat threats were made at schools across the country and at least one school was evacuated. (ANI)