Police building profile of Finland bomber
Finnish investigators today said a quiet, young chemistry student was behind a deadly bomb blast at a busy shopping mall outside Helsinki.
Police said Petri Gerdt, 19, had visited a Website chat room focused on building explosives.
They believe he made the bomb containing shotgun pellets and metal pieces that went off on Friday, killing himself and six other people. Eighty people were injured, and 30 are still in hospital.
Police said they questioned Gerdt’s family and found materials in his home that linked him to the bomb.
Detective Chief Superintendent Tero Haapala said they had no motive or evidence that Gerdt had political leanings or problems with drugs or alcohol.
Investigators said he did not have a criminal record and believe he was acting alone.
Gerdt lived with his parents and studied chemistry at a technical college near the site of the blast in Vantaa, 10 miles north of the capital.
He was an avid Internet surfer and used the alias “rc” in a Web chat group that discussed explosives, said Jari Liukku, deputy chief of the National Bureau of Investigation.
Neighbours and classmates described him as withdrawn, saying he did not have many friends but was well-behaved and they found it hard to believe he planned the devastating explosion.
