A male student shot and killed nine people at a vocational school in western Finland on Tuesday before turning the gun on himself, in the country's second such attack in less than a year.

The gunman, indentified by a local government official as Matti Juhani Saari, 22, was still alive but in critical condition with a head wound in Tampere University Hospital.

Medical Director Matti Lehto said it was not yet clear if Saari -- who, like the student gunman in last year's shooting at Finland's Jokela high school, posted threatening videos on the Internet several weeks before his attack -- would live.

"A cold-blooded shooter entered the building with an automatic pistol and started cutting down students," said Jukka Forsberg, a maintenance man at the school in the town of Kauhajoki where the shooting occurred.

"He also shot towards me, did not say anything and once the bullets started to whizz by I started running for my life."    

Many of the students at the school, which teaches catering and tourism studies, are around 20 years old.

Interior Minister Anne Holmlund told a news conference that police were in contact with Saari a day before the shooting.

She said they had been alerted to footage posted on the Web showing him firing a handgun at a shooting range, but were unable to get in touch with him immediately.

"Police reached him on Monday, Sept. 22, and asked him to be interviewed regarding the shooting video," Holmlund said.

She said Saari had a temporary permit for a pistol, but that the permit was not withdrawn.

"Police action will be examined in more detail later. The gunman had a temporary permit for a .22 calibre pistol, and he had received it in August 2008. It was his first gun."    

The Internet connection revived memories of last year's deadly attack at Jokela high school, where student Pekka-Eric Auvinen killed six fellow students, the school nurse and the principal after broadcasting his intent in a YouTube video.

Auvinen shot himself and died later of his injuries.

Crime rates are low in Finland but gun ownership is among the highest in the world. "We have experienced a tragic day," Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen told a news conference in Helsinki.

The Finnish government said grief counsellors were on site and giving support to students, teachers and relatives.

Rescue coordinator Kari Saarinen, who is also chief physician at Seinajoki hospital, about 60 km (40 miles) from Kauhajoki, said he was sad to see two such incidents in such a short span of time.

"This is very very depressing. We have only had some time  since the Jokela case last November," he said. Kauhajoki Mayor Antti Rantakokko said there were "analogies to the Jokela case."    

A search of YouTube and the wider Internet yielded a number of videos filmed by a user called "Mr. Saari", who said he was 22 years old and lived in Kauhajoki. The videos show a man clad in black or dark colours, firing a handgun at a shooting range.

The YouTube user's profile included the words: "And suddenly there was war and the mothers they screamed. For revenge and reprisals for another war."    

It adds: "Whole life is war and whole life is pain. And you will fight alone in your personal war. War. This is war!"    

In one video, entitled "Goodbye", the dark-clad man empties his gun into an off-screen target, walks to the camera and says "goodbye".-Reuters