Police told a press conference on Wednesday that the Kauhajoki school shooting is being investigated as ten cases of murder. Ten people died in the tragedy: 8 female students, one male student and one male member of staff. In addition, one female student was seriously wounded.

All of the victims were from the vicinity of Kauhajoki in the western Finnish region of Ostrobothnia. As of mid-day Wednesday, police had not released the identity of those killed or wounded.

According to investigators the shooting took place in a classroom. Nine of the victims were found there and one outside in the corridor.

The assailant also set fire to the room. As a result, all of the victims suffered severe burns. Identification of the remains is being supervised by the Disaster Victim Identification Unit of the National Bureau of Investigation.

Police say that the gunman seems to have been driven by rage. The 22 year-old student left a note saying that he had planned his rampage for years adding, "I have always wanted to murder as many people as possible".

So far, people do not know who videotaped the scenes posted by the gunman on the Youtude video sharing site.

A thorough investigation of the crime scene is underway and is expected to take several days. Identification of the victims may also take several days.

None of the remains of the victims had been officially identified as of mid-day Wednesday. However, the next-of-kin of all of the victims were informed of their loss Tuesday night.