Helsinki  - A 22-year-old student killed 10 persons Tuesday and wounded at least two more in a school massacre in western Finland, then turned the gun on himself.

Officials disclosed later that police had met with the alleged suspect on the eve of the killing spree. The gunman, also a student at the school, died of his self-inflicted wounds in hospital.

The shootings took place at the trade school in Kauhajoki, about 300 kilometres north-west of Helsinki.

Helsinki - Nine people were killed Tuesday at the shooting spree in western Finland, police said at a news conference, Finnish news agency STT reported.

The STT account had come shortly after police had disclosed several deaths in the shooting but had declined to be more specific about the numbers.

There were some 150 to 200 students at the trade school in Kauhajoki, about 300 kilometres north-west of the capital Helsinki, where the shooting took place, public broadcaster YLE said.

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.

Helsinki - The gunman in a trade school shooting spree in western Finland is dead, the Finnish newspaper Ilkka reported Tuesday, citing police sources.

Helsinki - The commander of the Finnish defence forces Monday expressed doubts about Finland signing an international ban against cluster weapons.

"A ban against cluster weapons would seriously weaken Finland's ability to defend itself," Admiral Juhani Kaskeala, commander of the Finnish defence forces, said in a speech.

Kaskeala said that so-called precision weapons would be expensive and are perhaps not as effective as cluster weapons, the Finnish news agency STT.

Finland is not a member of any military alliance, but regardless of that "Finland is responsible for our own defence," the commander said in his speech.

Helsnki - Finnish voters remain opposed to a possible membership in NATO, according to a new survey published Thursday.

The poll - conducted after the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia - suggested 57 per cent of Finns opposed joining NATO, 23 per cent were in favour while the remaining 20 per cent were undecided.

A year ago, those undecided were on 16 per cent, the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper that commissioned the Gallup survey said. About 1,000 people were polled by telephone September 2-11.