A Finnish man accused of going on a fatal stabbing spree with a sabre at a vocational school went on trial on Tuesday in the central city of Kuopio.
Joel Marin, 25, was charged with one count of murder and 19 counts of attempted murder over the October 2019 attack at the Savo Vocational College in Kuopio where he was a student.
During the attack he used a sabre, but also had an airgun with him.
Prosecutor Ulla Oinonen told the North Savo district court that the accused had planned the attack for over a year and his motive was to take some sort of revenge and to create as much shock as possible, public broadcaster YLE reported.
Oinonen said she was seeking a life sentence for Marin.
The single fatality was a young Ukrainian woman, also a student, while nine other people were injured.
Randomly selected victims
Marin's lawyer, Matti Niiranen, said his client admitted to the murder and some of the counts of attempted murder. He added that Marin had thought he would be killed by police, according to YLE.
Niiranen said the victims were selected at random in the man's classroom.
The school was at the time provisionally housed in the Hermann shopping mall, and according to the charges, Marin also attacked one shopping centre employee.
Other charges included resisting arrest, aggravated assault and one charge of vandalism over setting a small fire.
During police interviews, Marin said he had read up on school attacks in several countries, including Finland and the United States.
