Vantaa explosion - latest news

You might have noticed this in all the news already but I thought I'd provide some more information for you.

Yesterday 19:35 local time (GMT+2) there was a huge explosion in a Finnish shopping mall Myyrmanni which is located in Vantaa city, about 15 kilometers north from Helsinki (the capital) downtown. (And about 5 kilometers north from where I live.) It was about the peak hour so there were some 1000...1200 customers at the place at the moment. Myyrmanni has got about 130 stores.

Firetrucks, over 15 ambulances and a lot of police units were immediately sent to the mall and it was evacuated and sealed at least for the weekend, maybe for the next week. After some hours of investigation it was proved to be a bomb, although a gas explosion was suspected at first. Currently there are seven (7) killed and about 60 people are at hospitals, some nine are <15 years old. Three people are still in critical condition. Some twenty more were less injured. One of the dead persons is still unidentified, it is suspected that he might be the on who set up the bomb.

The bomb was located in the first floor near a place where a clown was just having a show and sharing balloons. The explosion brought down a part of the roof, broke windows and blew a lot of metal debris around. Police said that it probably was designed to cause as much destruction as possible.

The most up-to-date piece of news in English about this is here: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L12244052

And some amateur photos from the place:
http://koti.mbnet.fi/~alt/Rajahdys/
http://koti.mbnet.fi/~glm/manni/

Hope everyone you know is ok.

More links:
http://www.helsinki-hs.net/news.asp?id=20021011IE9

or

http://www.helsinginsanomat.fi
http://www.iltasanomat.fi
http://www.iltalehti.fi

if you're Finnish.

Seems like international style of violence has come to Finland
as well. This can be expected with the recent international
events though Finland has always stayed fairly neutral. Peop-
le in our government have only critized Israel enough to piss
someone off. (paranoid: perhaps someone's trying to pressure
us?)

You know, no amount of explosions is going to intimidate me.
If you need to raise your spirit remember, we're a small country
but with tough people.

And I do hope SUPO nail the bastards and lock them up for
good no matter who they are.

I don't have any problems with my national spirit, I can even post links to news likethis and then laugh when I think of what others might think of us, it's their problem. Americans are usually over-patriotic and worried what others might think of them. ;)

The police just had this press conference about the bomb attack, they confirmed that they suspect that the 7th dead person, less than 20 years old Finnish male university student, is the one who set up the bomb. Otherwise a quite absurd press conference, mostly just "No comments" to the questions asked.

And btw, it's not SuPo that's investigating the case, it's KRP. (SuPo = Security Police, KRP = National Bureau of Investigation (I guess, those would be the closest names I can come up with.)

Btw, here's a link to the police: http://www.poliisi.fi/poliisi/bullet...256C5000451DA1
They also have got three high-res pictures from there.

How truly sad! No matter where you live, you are at risk for some form of terrorism. Because whether it is a terrorist group or a single individual, what he/they are doing is striking terror in the hearts of all of us. It doesn't matter that the man that set up the bomb is dead now, he caused pain and agony for many before he died. How unfortunate that there are people unable to process their own pain without taking other innocent people with them.

I sincerely hope that all your family and friends are ok and that this madness stops for you soon. Just as I hope the sniper shootings in the states stop soon. It's all insane.

i saw your post 6:00 gmt. its been on my mind all day. its quite an upsetting thing to have happen in your country. you have my sympathies.

can't seem to find out allot about it. 20 year old uni student blah, blah, blah.

Any idea why?

Thanks zaggy and Tedob1. I'm ok and at least I don't know that anyone I know would have been hurt. I myself visit that mall perhaps once a year. Have to see at school tomorrow if everyone there is okay, though...

The police just had another press conference, they still prefer to keep much of the information in their own. They specified that this 1983 born male, pure Finnish student who lived there in Vantaa and studied chemistry in a vocational high school nearby did not have any criminal backgroung nor any connections to any gangs. Neither he knew any of the dead or injured people, so it wasn't targeted against anyone special. The police didn't want to speculate about the motives.

The police refused to comment ("Still investigating: watching surveillance cam tapes and looking for eye-wittnesses") a lot of things, such as how the man brought the explosive there. They did tell that it has turned out to be quite difficult to identify the explosive but that at least it isn't a military explosive of any kind. House search in his apartment revealed some material that connects him to the case, they didn't tell exactly what but probably materials needed to build a bomb. There was an unconfirmed rumour that he got the instructions for the bomb from the internet and they were then found there.

There were about two or three kilograms of explosive and its destructive effect was enhanted with those little scattering things that shotguns use.

The killed persons were three men, three women and a girl. 33 persons (18 of which needed surgery) are said to still be in hospitals but no-ones life is in danger anymore. Some 30+ are already back to home and about 20+ just originally had some scrathes and stuff that were removed and cleaned so they didn't even have to overnight in the hospital then.

ZeroOne: Good to know you have your humor intact. :)

According to Metro- or 100-newspapers the bomber might have been someone who
visited internet chemistry forums with the nick rc. The suspected man was a chemistry
student named Petri Gerdt aged 19. If the source is correct he was studying at Evitech
Polytechnic. www @ http://www.evitech.fi

According to the paper he also used a motto "i'm not a killer but don't push me".

I also know people who frequent the place and have passed it on metro numerous
times. It will be quite eerie to pass it the next time.

EDIT:

For English text on the Espoo - Vantaa Institute of Technology

http://www.evitech.fi/technology/

Wowza. This era of global violence is getting out of control. I really wonder if whomever is behind it all feels like they're accomplishing something, or if they just like destroying things.

Glad to hear you and our other Finnish AO members are okay.

was it not Finnish (correct me if i'm wrong, please) teenagers?

-respect-

The one who set up the bomb and died himself in the explosion, too, was Petri Gerdt, 19 years old. The police has now arrested one 17-years-old boy suspected of helping the bomber to build this bomb, either directly or by getting the needed material. The police also caught three other men but they were released after interrogation. And yes tampabay420, they were/are are pure Finns. That's kind of a lucky thing as I really can't imagine what kind of racism it would have invoked if they were foreigners... :(

And the complete signature line that Petri "rc" Gerdt used in the chemistry discussion forums in the net was "I ain't a killer but don't push me. Revenge is like the sweetest joy next to gettin pussy". It's from rap artist Makavel's record 'The Don Killuminati' and its song 'Hail Mary'. 100-Newspaper was too quick connecting it to the African Killuminati-organization which is against capitalism or something... :rolleyes:

Here is a link to MTV3's report about "rc" (in Finnish...):
http://www.mtv3.fi/myyrmanni/uutiset2.shtml?135647

The whole country had all the flags in half a pole today. I think that was done after the WTC too, or it might be that there was only the silent moment then. Can't remember. Wonder where it hits 13.11.2003 (see the pattern? dd.mm.yyyy: WTC: 11.09.2001, Myyrmanni 12.10.2003)...

Btw, an awful thing that one in the Indonesia, too. :( It was by Osama this time.

I just thought I'd still post a link or two..:
http://koti.mbnet.fi/simison/ <- By far the best place for information about the explosion. Lots of pieces of news from various sources and links to them. You can find links like http://www.roi24.com/kotikemia/ from there, this is a backup copy of the chemistry forum where rc used to participate. Links to the last threads he participated in:
Last: http://www.roi24.com/kotikemia/post....1&cat=4&pid=10
2nd last: http://www.roi24.com/kotikemia/post....=2&cat=4&pid=8
3rd last: http://www.roi24.com/kotikemia/post....=1&cat=4&pid=9

The guy who is now arrested and who held the chemistry forum had a picture in the IRC-gallery (http://irc-galleria.net/), someone of course backupped it before it was removed..:
http://www.sci.fi/~borg/kamaa/

ZeroOne: Thanks for the links. Too bad I can't give any APs.

I just hope innocent people won't be attacked because of this. I don't
know what the moderator of the forum for instance did.