Helsinki- Finnish police, in an account contradicting a media
report, said Tuesday that the gunman in a school shooting spree in
western Finland survived a suicide attempt.

Police said the man shot himself in the head but had survived and was taken to hospital in Tampere with serious woundes.

Officials gave no account of possible deaths or injuries in the
shooting spree in the town of Kauhajoki, some 300 kilometres north-
west of the capital Helsinki.

Earlier, the Finnish paper Ilkka had reported, citing police sources, that the gunman had died. dpa