A teenager at a school in Finland has shot dead seven classmates and the headmistress.
Police identified 18-year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen as the killer who was pronounced dead later on Wednesday after turning the gun on himself.
"There was no hope," said Dr Eero Hirvensalo, chief of the Toolo Hospital in central Helsinki. "His condition was critical from the beginning."
He had signalled his intentions in a video posted on the internet.
"The gunman aimed his weapon at his head and fired," a police spokesman said.
Witnesses described chaos and panic as Auvinen shot dead his headmistress, five boys, two girls, and wounded a dozen others as they tried to flee the carnage.
Principal dead
Tuusula is a town of 35,000 around 60km from the Finnish capital Helsinki.
Miro Lukinmaa, a student, told the Iltalehti newspaper: "Suddenly people began running and shots were heard and began raining down.
"I saw injured people lying in the corridor. We started to run and followed [the crowd] in panic. Everyone was trying to squeeze through a narrow door."
The shooting came after a video entitled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007" was posted on the video-sharing website You Tube.
'Peaceful place'
The video shows a still photo of a low building that appears to be the Jokela High School.
The photo then breaks apart to reveal a red-tinted picture of a man pointing a handgun at the camera.
"He [the gunman] was moving systematically through the school hallways, knocking on the doors and shooting through the doors," said Kim Kiuru, who was teaching a grade 8 class when the shooting began.
"It felt unreal, a pupil I have taught myself was running towards me, screaming, a pistol in his hand."
Olli Laine, a police officer, earlier said that police had evacuated students from the building.
"This is a peaceful place, nothing like this has happened and nothing like this is to be expected either," Hannu Joensivusaid, the mayor of Tuusula, said.
Despite having the world's third-largest per capita handgun ownership, violent incidents are rare at Finnish schools.