Finnish tragedy is the latest in long line of school shootings

Today's shooting in Finland is the latest in a bloody trend.

Here are details of some of the other major shooting incidents within schools and universities across the world:

* January 1979, California, US: Teenager Brenda Spencer killed two people and wounded nine others at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California. She later told a reporter she started shooting because: "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day."

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* November 1991, Ohio, US: Gang Lu, a graduate student in physics from China who was apparently upset because he was passed over for an academic honour, opened fire in two buildings on the University of Iowa campus. Five university employees were killed and two wounded. The 28-year-old then turned his weapon on himself.

* March 1996, Dunblane, Scotland: Former scout leader Thomas Hamilton burst into Dunblane Primary School, opening fire and killing 16 children and their teacher before killing himself.

* March 1998, Arkansas, US: Two boys aged 11 and 13 set off a fire alarm before killing four students and a teacher at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

* April 1999, Colorado, US: A total of 12 students and a teacher were murdered in Littleton, Colorado, by two boys who then killed themselves in the infamous Columbine High School massacre.

* February 2002, Freising, Germany: Three people were killed by a former student who had been thrown out of trade school. The gunman then killed himself.

* April 2002, Erfurt, Germany: An expelled former pupil went on a killing spree at his school, killing 17 people, including 14 teachers, two pupils and the first policeman on the scene, before taking his own life.

* October, 2002, Arizona, US: Failing University of Arizona Nursing College student Robert Flores, 40, killed a female instructor in her office. Minutes later, armed with five guns, the Gulf War veteran entered one of his nursing classrooms and killed two more instructors before killing himself.

* September 2004, Beslan, Russia: More than 300 hostages - over half of them children, were killed following the three-day siege of School No. 1 in Beslan. The school had been seized by rebels demanding Chechen independence. The siege ended in a gun battle when Russian soldiers stormed the building.

* October 2006, Pennsylvania, US: Married father-of-three Charles Roberts killed five girls in a rural Amish school in Pennsylvania and wounded several more, before turning the gun on himself. The 32-year-old milk truck driver took over the one-room school, sent the adults and boys out and shot the 10 remaining girls before turning the gun on himself.

* April 2007, Virginia, US: Gunman Seung-Hui Cho opened fire in a halls of residence and a classroom at Virginia Tech university, killing 32 people and wounding 15 others before turning the gun on himself.

* November 2007, Tuusula, Finland: Pekka-Eric Auvinen opened fire at random with a legally-owned .22 automatic pistol killing eight students and staff after posting plans for the attack on YouTube. Auvinen's victims included the school's headmistress and nurse at Jokela High School in , 30 miles north of Helsinki. He shot himself in the head, dying later in hospital.

* Februay 2008, DeKalb, Illinois, US: Former student Steven Kazmierczak walked on to the stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University and opened fire on a science class killing six students before shooting himself.