By Paul de Bendern
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Police probing Finland's worst peacetime bomb attack were trying on Sunday to work out whether their only suspect, a chemistry student who was among the seven dead, had found bomb-making instructions on the Internet.
Investigators appealed to the public for information about the 19-year-old chemistry student, who lived at home with his parents, attended a technology institute in the Helsinki suburb of Vantaa and spent a lot of time hooked up to the Internet.
The home-made bomb, weighing up to three kg (6.6 pounds) and packed with metal shards, went off close to a children's area in a shopping center packed with 2,000 shoppers on Friday evening, killing seven people and injuring more than 80.
"He was likely a skilled bomb maker," National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Deputy Chief Jari Liukku told Reuters of the teenage suspect. He said the explosives used were unusual and different from those used by the military.
Finnish media said the student may have obtained bomb-making information on the Internet, and said his parents, unaware of his activities and deeply shocked, were receiving counseling.
"He was using the Internet quite a lot," Liukku told Reuters, but declined to elaborate.
Police said the death toll would have been much higher if the bomb had exploded a few minutes earlier, as a performance for children nearby had ended shortly before the blast.
The suspect was "an ordinary young man from a middle-class family. There was nothing particular about him or his personality," Liukku said. "We have appealed to the public for information about him."
Police declined to name the suspect as the investigation was still under way, and Liukku said Finnish law prevents police from commenting in detail on a suspect's mental state.
When police searched the student's home, "material was found which can connect the perpetrator's residence and the site of the incident," NBI Chief Tero Haapala told a news conference.
INTERNET HELP?
Finnish media said police had found Internet addresses and other information on the suspect's home computer that suggested he had obtained bomb-making instructions over the Internet.
Liukku said the NBI, a police unit, was going through the suspect's home computer and other computers with which he had links. He did not say whether the suspect had chatted to other people on the Internet before the attack.
Authorities said the youth had no criminal record and was not believed to have had any strong ideological beliefs.
The bomb was detonated in the center of the mall near a crowd of children watching a clown, police said. A seven-year-old child died and many of the injured lost limbs.
Police said the suspect had no connections to the victims.
Politicians said the blast was Finland's deadliest peacetime attack, and it forced political leaders and the public to ask why it should happen in their peaceful and relatively crime-free Nordic country.
"We are used to not having to worry about our safety in public places. We even expect our leaders to be able to move openly among the public," the daily Hufvudstadsbladet said in an editorial.
"We take for granted that our children can watch a clown during a family's Friday shopping without being blown to bits."
Security measures have been stepped up at public places, people have lit candles and left flowers near the cordoned-off shopping mall, and a memorial service has been held.
Only a day after the Finnish blast, bombs ripped through a packed nightspot on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali -- like Finland a traditionally peaceful place -- killing more than 180 people and injuring hundreds more.
Internet chat friends of Finnish bomber held They talked about bombs but are not suspects
HELSINKI - Finnish police have detained for questioning two Internet chat friends of a 19-year-old chemistry student who killed himself and six others last week when he set off a bomb in a crowded shopping centre, officials said yesterday.
A reconstructed photo of student Petri Gerdt, 19, has been released by Finnish police. -- AP 'We are holding two of the bomber's friends,' said Ms Tuula Kyren, spokesman for the National Bureau for Investigation.
'We are trying to find out what connection they have to the bomber,' she said, stressing they were 'not under suspicion of being involved in the bombing'.
The detained men frequently discussed bomb-related topics with the bomber on a website about home-made explosives which he often visited.
The Internet site has been shut down since Friday's bombing.
Police have few clues as to why Petri Gerdt, a quiet student who lived at home with his parents, carried out the fatal attack which injured around 100 people, but suspect he may have been inspired by the website.
The home-made bomb contained up to 2 kg of explosive materials and a large number of lead and steel shotgun pellets, apparently aimed at killing as many people as possible, police said.
The blast occurred late on Friday on the ground floor of an atrium of a suburban shopping mall in a city 12 km north of the capital Helsinki.
At the time, up to 2,000 people were estimated to be in the mall, one of Finland's largest.
Police have released a reconstructed photo of Gerdt and are asking eye witnesses to come forward with information to help them retrace his steps at the mall. --AFP
A reconstructed photo of student Petri Gerdt, 19, has been released by Finnish police. -- AP