News

Finnish police reported on Friday morning that they had discovered the dead body of the gunman who opened fire on a shopping mall near the capital Helsinki killing four of its employees. He had committed suicide.

Police said one woman and three men were shot dead on Thursday morning at the Sello shopping mall in Espoo, six miles (10 kilometres) west of Helsinki on Thursday. The gunman was identified as 43-year-old Ibrahim Shkupolli, an Albanian living in Finland.

Shkupolli killed his ex-girlfriend in a nearby apartment before heading to the mall, police said. The ex-girlfriend, a Finnish woman, also worked at the mall and had taken out a restraining order against Shkupolli.

The slayings shocked hundreds of people who had gone shopping early on New Year''s Eve. On Friday morning, local people said they were worried for the future of the community.

Memorial candles continued to burn on Friday outside the Prisma supermarket which is part of the mall where the gunman struck. Finland, a nation of 5.3 (m) million, has 1.6 (m) million firearms in private hands and ranks among the top five nations in the world in civilian gun ownership.

Politicians, social workers and religious leaders have all urged tighter gun laws, more vigilance of Internet sites, and more social bonding in the small Nordic nation, which is known for its high suicide rates, heavy drinking and domestic violence.

Previous shootings in Finland have been linked to schools. In September 2008, a lone gunman killed nine fellow students and a teacher at a vocational college before shooting himself in the western town of Kauhajoki.

In November 2007, an 18-year-old student fatally shot eight people and himself at a high school in southern Finland. Both young men fired guns in YouTube clips posted before the shootings, shot themselves in the head and used .22-calibre handguns bought from the same store.