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Rasbelin
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Tampere (Tammerfors), Finland
Nov 1999
time: 07:22
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 11-10-2002 23:48
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#1
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Bomb in Finnish shopping centre - 7 dead and ~80 injured
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Bomb explosion in shopping centre Myyrmanni in Vantaa
7 dead and ~80 injured. Bomber identified. Motives unknown. Information from the Internet. One person in custody. Investigation continues.
Latest coverage update by Rasbelin: 12:00 UMT (14:00 Helsinki), 17th Oct.
From the wires
From Helsingin Sanomat (International Edition) (source)...
quote:
Police hold 17-year-old message board enthusiast in Myyrmäki bombing case
Friend of bomber tells newspaper Gerdt spoke of plans for explosion among people
Link to a larger image On Wednesday Finnish police continued to hold a 17-year-old computer enthusiast and amateur pyrotechnics expert they think may be linked with the bombing of the Myyrmanni shopping mall in Vantaa. The boy was one of a number of youngsters questioned by police. The 17-year-old is the founder and moderator of an Internet message board called the "Home Chemistry Forum". The suspected bomber, 19-year-old Petri Gerdt, was killed in the explosion himself; he was a frequent contributor to the message board under the pseudonym RC. The 17-year-old being held by the police also frequently wrote on the forum under the sign-on name Einstein. Einstein and RC were the most frequent contributors to the forum, and appeared to have the greatest expertise on the subject of explosives. Police do not know if the two ever met face-to-face. Police nevertheless suspect Einstein of helping Gerdt manufacture his bomb - possibly not knowing what it would be used for. The two are also known to have contributed to foreign message boards dedicated to explosives.
Security camera tapes have revealed that Gerdt visited the shopping mall on Thursday - the evening before the explosion. On the night of the blast itself he had spent about 20 minutes at the mall. The explosive device was home-made and very simple. The materials used were easy to come by, but the motive remains a mystery.
On the evening of the bombing Einstein wrote onto the message board: "I just heard that an explosion had taken place at a shopping centre between Helsinki and Vantaa, where ... 6 people were killed and about ten injured. I suspect a gas explosion, but you never know... I don't believe that anyone would do a bomb attack in the middle of a shopping centre... Does anyone have any personal experience about this, or any other ideas?" The following afternoon Einstein expressed his deepest condolences to the family members of those who had died. "This is really serious. Try to cope, people!", he wrote. After that speculation started rising about whether or not the bomber may have been the one known to those reading the message board as RC.
Meanwhile, the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat reported on Wednesday that a friend of Petri Gerdt, who calls himself "Hessu", had come forward and said that Gerdt had spoken about detonating a bomb in a public place for about a year. "I never would have believed that he would carry out his plan", he said. "Hessu", a man in his 20s, approached the police voluntarily on the matter. He said that Gerdt had said that he did not want to die in the blast himself. "Hessu" said that he had met Gerdt, a shy and quiet boy, at restaurants frequented by young people in Helsinki and Vantaa. He said that he did not share Gerdt's interest in explosives. He also said that Gerdt's fascination with explosives had grown during the past six months.
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From Helsingin Sanomat (International Edition) (source)...
quote:
Police detain youth in connection with shopping mall bombing - flags fly at half staff all over Finland
Investigation continues into type of explosive used - working group to consider tighter controls on Internet message boards
Link to a larger image The police announced on Tuesday morning that they had detained a 17-year-old male living in Southern Finland in connection with the bombing case at the Myyrmanni shopping mall in the city of Vantaa on Friday. The police had questioned a number of young men over the incident, and all but the 17-year-old were later released. Meanwhile the Ministry of the Interior has ordered all public buildings to fly their flags at half staff from eight in the morning to sunset on Tuesday. Private institutions and households were urged to do the same. The move is a gesture of condolence to those who lost their lives in the bomb explosion. The head of the investigation, Tero Haapala, emphasises that the police continue to believe that the suspected bomber, Petri Gerdt, had acted alone, and that he had intended to detonate the bomb in the shopping mall where it went off. Gerdt himself was one of those who were killed in the bombing. Haapala would not say how many people had been detained, or any other details of the investigation, but at least some of those held are believed to have taken part in Internet discussions with the suspected bomber.
Meanwhile, officials at the National Bureau of Investigation say that they are close to determining the composition of the explosive device. The investigations are focusing on the Internet message boards where Gerdt, a chemistry student using the pseudonym RC, had written that he had performed a test explosion with a substance called HMTD. However, on Monday experts did not believe that he would have used this somewhat unstable substance in his bomb. On Monday investigators attempted to reconstruct the events leading up to the blast at the shopping mall, using security camera footage as a reference. Not all of Petri Gerdt's movements were caught on tape, and on Monday police released a computer-generated photograph, using a picture of the suspect's head attached to the body of a mannequin wearing the same clothes that Gerdt was wearing when the bomb went off. Police hope that the picture may jog the memories of some witnesses.
Finland's Minister of the Interior Ville Itälä (Nat. Coalition) ordered the establishment of a police working group which is to consider the need for possible controls on the content of Internet message boards in light of the recent events. At least one message board devoted to explosives was shut down on Sunday. However, the users soon copied the files onto other message boards. Itälä is also reporting to Parliament today on the investigation so far. There will be no debate on the issue, but the body is to hold a minute's silence for the victims of the blast.
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From Helsingin Sanomat (International Edition) (source)...
quote:
Shopping mall bomber described as a loner
Chemistry student frequent contributor to bomb-making web sites
Link to a larger image Police believe that a 19-year-old chemistry student, Petri Erkki Tapio Gerdt, set the bomb which exploded on Friday evening at the Myyrmanni shopping mall in Vantaa, just north of Helsinki. Seven people, including the suspected bomber, were killed in the blast and more than 70 were injured. The other six victims ranged in age from seven to 39. The suspected bomber had begun his studies at the Espoo-Vantaa Institute of Technology (EVITech) in late August this year. He lived with his parents in the Tikkurila district of Vantaa. His fellow students described him as a quiet and withdrawn young man who would sit at the rear of the classroom and who rarely took part in student events.
During weekends he spent much time surfing the Internet. He is believed to have used the pseudonym RC on a number of message boards. RC was a frequent contributor on a message board known as the Forum for Home Chemistry, focusing on pyrotechnics. RC appeared to be something of an expert in the field, and police are still investigating whether or not RC and the bombing suspect are, in fact, one and the same individual. On Tuesday, three days before the explosion, RC asks other members of the forum to write in to say if they have had any "conflicts with explosives/officials". "The idea would be to write about accidents, officials, and other fun events. No major accidents have happened to me, but once I had a dream that a police car drove to a detonation site. Good thing I was 'floating' in another direction", wrote RC. The same person used an ominous tag-line or "signature" for his posts: "I ain't a killer but don't push me", and also addressed the question of scatter-bombs in one thread. After the shopping mall bombing other members of the forum posted messages speculating that RC may have been the bomber. The forum operates on a server maintained by the Finnish computer magazine Mikrobitti. The magazine's head of new media, Jouni Heikniemi, said that the pages were shut down on Sunday afternoon. "The pages are closed for now. We do not know yet if the bomber really was one of those involved in the discussion. We will look into the matter on Monday", Heikniemi said.
Police said on Sunday that the explosive used in the bomb, which weighed two to three kilos, was not of a conventiuonal type, nor was it familiar from military use. Police learned little new information on Sunday, and have not ruled out the possibility that the explosion may have been accidental. In a search of the suspect's home on Saturday the police found material suggesting that he was involved in the construction of explosives.
The bomb appeared to have been built specifically to cause maximum injury: it was packed with metal pieces, either shot or ball-bearings, causing appalling shrapnel wounds to many of the victims. Hospital spokesmen have said that none of the more than 30 persons still in care is in any immediate danger, but at the same time many of the injuries are very grave, with the likelihood of some permanent impediment. A number of people lost limbs. The location and timing of the explosion (a clown show was in progress on the main concourse) meant that many families were together at the moment of the blast, and a number of small children are among those still in hospital. A seven-year-old girl was among the dead.
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Research report by Rasbelin...
The bomber most likely received some instructions about explosives from "Kotikemian forum" (in English: Home chemistry forum) that was located on MBnet and used kotikemia.tk as its URL, but technically the site was located on http://koti.mbnet.fi/vaakkupr/NEWpb. Just a sidenote that MBnet has nothing to do with this incident as ex. the TV broadcast screenshots are hosted by me on MBnet. A 3rd party backup version (not fully functioning) of the BBS can be found at http://www.roi24.com/kotikemia, but please note that it's not the real one, as the BBS is currently closed for 1 week as a memorial to the dead BBS member. The bomber was using the name "rc" on the forums. A few selected things can be found elsewhere, like the announcement that the BBS will be closed for one week (screenshot) and a post by rc about a dream in which the police arrived to the scene of an explosion (extracted thread). Currently it looks like the other BBS members were unaware of rc's plans and what he was about to do, so I underline that the other BBS members shouldn't be seen as culprits or direct associates, unless the police investigation proves that.
Partial translation by Rasbelin of the official press release of the National Bureau of Investigation...
quote:
The investigation of the Myyrmanni explosion continues
13.10.2002
National Bureau of Investigation
The police has continued the investigations related to the bomb explosion on a broad frontier. The man who is suspected, died in the explosion. He was of Finnish origin and born in 1983. He lived in Vantaa and studied at an educational establishment in Myyrmäki in Vantaa. He seems to have been alone. No evidence that would show he would have an associate has been found. The police doesn't know the motive.
The police has used coercive methods in the inevstigation authorised by the law and done a house search at the bomber's home. Its results and other evidence material gathered are currently under research, and the investigation is in general continuing at full speed.
The explosive used in the bomb has yet not been identified.
The police is still asking the public for hints and information about the deeds of the suspect before the explosion. His characteristics are:
- height 187 cm
- dark gray Nike college shirt and under it a gray T-shirt
- dark blue Nike windbreaker jacket
- dark blue Nike sweat pants
- light bluish gray Adidas sport shoes
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Notes by Rasbelin from the joint press conference of authorities...
- 33 patients still in hospital.
- Several lives could be saved thanks to quick actions by the rescue workers.
- The house search provided some evidence that the home of the bomber and the crime scene could be linked together in the investigation.
- The technical investigation is continuing, but any military explosives can be ruled out.
- The man didn't have social problems caused by drugs or alcohol.
From Associated Press by Jerusalem Post (source)...
quote:
Seven killed, dozens injured in shopping mall bombing in Finland
VANTAA, Finland - A bomb killed seven people and injured dozens at a busy shopping mall in a quiet suburb on the outskirts of Helsinki, police said Saturday. The blast occurred near a spot where a clown had been blowing balloons for children moments earlier.
The explosion Friday, soon after 7:30 p.m. (1630 GMT), caused parts of the glass-covered construction in one of Finland's largest malls in Vantaa to collapse, officials said.
"The bomb exploded on the ground floor of the mall," said Chief Superintendent Seppo Kujala of the Vantaa police, but declined to say whether they suspected a terror-linked attack.
"There were lots of people around at the time," Kujala said.
Up to 2,000 people had packed into the three-story Myyrmanni mall in Vantaa, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) north of the capital, where a clown had been blowing balloons with his mouth for children. He was not using gas and isn't suspected in the blast.
The powerful blast shocked a country unaccustomed to such violence.
Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen said the government was doing everything possible to find out who was behind the attack.
"Nothing like this has happened in Finland before," Lipponen said. "The information we have suggests that the explosives were constructed so as to cause the largest possible damage."
The government was meeting later Saturday in an emergency session.
Police had not detained anyone but were questioning several people, they said.
"The amount of explosives used was such that it could easily be carried around unobserved," said Jari Liukku, chief superintendent of the National Bureau of Investigation. He declined to give more details.
Police initially said they suspected the blast was caused by exploding gas cylinders, but ruled that out Saturday.
A memorial service in a church near the mall was being held later Saturday, which government ministers including Lipponen were to attend. President Tarja Halonen offered her condolences to victims and their families.
The blast killed seven people and injured at least 50, including several with serious wounds, authorities said.
Victims of the blast were taken to several hospitals in the region. Police declined to release details of the victims. Officials said children were among the injured but wouldn't say how many.
"This is the most serious accident since World War II in (the) Helsinki (region)," said Eero Hirvensalo, a physician at Helsinki University Central Hospital. He said among the injured were some who lost limbs.
"There was a terrible explosion. My ears were completely blocked up," said bystander Orvokki Neuvonen. "Glass fell down from the third floor and children and parents were in total panic when they saw the injured people."
"Children were weeping and screaming in panic. Mothers were screaming. Among the shattered glass were injured and unconscious people," she said.
In July, a car bomb exploded in central Helsinki killing one person and injuring the assailant who triggered the bomb in a nearby vehicle. Police said that attack was connected to crime gangs.
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From miscellaneous Finnish sources
- The name of the 19 year-old student was Petri Gerdt.
- The bomber was a student at Espoo-Vantaa Institute of Technology, faculty of chemistry (a polytechnic school).
- The student lived at home with his parents in the suburb Tikkurila/Dickursby of Vantaa.
- The explosive seems to have been a dirty bomb that was loaded with nails inside a tube like cylinder.
- The Myyrmanni shopping centre will be opened again to the public within one week after the investigation has ended and all the needed repairs have been made.
TV broadcast screenshots
These are all screenshots taken from TV news broadcasts of Finnish networks. All shots were taken by Rasbelin.
This set of pictures is from the evening of 11.10. (Friday). The pictures are showing rescue workers, police and civilians outside the Myyrmanni shopping centre.
This set is shot on Saturday evening when the media was allowed to have a peek inside the shopping centre on the destruction on the first and second floor. In the last picture you can see a police workstation on the first floor.
Stay tuned for updates!
Last edited by Rasbelin on 17-10-2002 at 16:06
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