Finland's relaxed gun laws are set to face criticism after an 18-year-old gunman shot dead seven children and a head teacher at a school.

The gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen then turned the weapon on himself at Jokela High School and died later in hospital.

About 56 of every 100 Finns own a gun, according to a study by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies - putting the rate of firearm ownership in Finland third after the US and Yemen.

The government has said Finland's low crime rate meant there was little need for harsher gun regulations.

But Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said that perception might change after the student, who obtained a licence for a .22 calibre handgun from a shooting club last month, opened fire on his fellow students in the south of Finland.

"Definitely this will impact opinions about handguns," he said, adding that the government would take up the issue later.

The European Union's arms legislation forbids the sale of weapons to those under 18 except for hunting or target shooting.

Earlier this year, the EU proposed raising the legal age for all gun possession to 18, a measure that drew protests from Finland which said hunting was a popular leisure activity.

The proposal allows minors to use guns only if accompanied by a parent or guardian.

In 2006, there were 300,000 hunters among the 5.3 million inhabitants of Finland, the national statistics office said. Some 38,000 were under the age of 20.

Anyone aged 15 and over can apply for a gun licence with local police if they are able to offer a valid reason.

The easiest way to obtain a licence is by joining a shooting or hunting club, as the Jokela gunman did in October.

Violent incidents are rare at Finnish schools and metal detectors, common in the US, are unheard of.

The school massacre could change all that, said Timo Myllyntaus, a history professor at Turku University.

According to Finnish media, there have been four stabbings at schools since 1999, but none of these caused fatalities.

The last major attack in the country came in 2002 when a young man killed himself and six others in a bomb blast at a shopping mall in Helsinki.

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