Dateline: HELSINKI, FinlandPolice on Wednesday probed for details about a teenager suspected of giving Internet instructions on building a bomb that was set off by a chemical engineering student in a shopping mall, killing himself and six others.
Investigators said they still believe Petri Gerdt, 19, was acting alone in triggering the homemade bomb that was packed with gunshot pellets and metal pieces, but a 17-year-old remained in custody on suspicion of helping Gerdt plan the device.
"We're still looking into what sort of contacts the 17-year-old boy from southern Finland had with Gerdt," said Tuula Kyren, a spokeswoman for the National Bureau of Investigation.
Kyren said Gerdt had discussed homemade explosives on an Internet chat group with the arrested youth and at least three other men, who were released late Tuesday after questioning.
"We have found no links to terrorism. We have ruled that out," Kyren said, declining to give more details.
Gerdt had no criminal record or affiliations to political movements, police said, and did not have any known problems with alcohol or drugs.
The teenager, who was not further identified, faced a preliminary charge of "assisting in a grievous act of destruction," that carries a maximum sentence of about seven years for a minor. Prosecutors have until Thursday to file formal charges.
Police said they still had no motive for the deadly explosion, which also injured 80 in one Finland's largest shopping malls in Vantaa, some 15 kilometers (10 miles) north of the capital, Helsinki.
Photographs of Gerdt have been released as authorities appealed to the public for information.
Police have only said they know Gerdt left his home in Vantaa soon after noon (0900 GMT) on Oct. 11, the day of the blast and arrived at the Myyrmaki mall at 7:20 p.m. (1620 GMT), about 15 minutes before the bomb went off.
Gerdt, who identified himself as 'rc' on the Internet, was active on the "bomb forum" chat line, swapping details about explosives with several people, including someone using the alias "Einstein."
Police declined to confirm that the 17-year-old suspect and "Einstein" were the same person. The chat group has been closed, except for isolated pages which also contain alleged exchanges between Gerdt and "Einstein."
Also Wednesday, the Ilta-Sanomat tabloid reported that a 20-year-old man who claimed to be a friend of Gerdt's told police that Gerdt had been planning for a year to explode a bomb in a large crowd.
"In restaurants, Pete (Petri Gerdt) just kept on going on about 'bombs, bombs, bombs,'" Ilta-Sanomat quoted the man, identified only as "Hessu" as saying.
Gerdt, who lived with his family in the affluent Vantaa suburb, studied at a college near the blast site and was described by fellow students as a lonely figure with few friends.
His last known message on the Web site said he dreamt that a police car arrived "at the explosion site."
"Luckily, I was already 'floating' in the other direction," Gerdt wrote three days before the blast.
(mhh-krg)
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