More than 30 feared killed in shooting at kindergarten in Thailand
Thailand #Thailand
Thirty-six people, including 22 children, were dead in northeastern Thailand on Thursday after a former police officer who had just appeared in court on drugs charges opened fire at a daycare, police said.
As he fled the daycare scene, the suspected shooter drove into people and shot bystanders before traveling home where he killed his wife and child, police said.
At least 12 people were wounded, eight of them seriously, and were receiving medical treatment, the office of Police Gen. Surachete Hakparn said.
Among those who died in Uthai Sawan, which is 310 miles northeast of Bangkok in the province of Nong Bua Lamphu, were 19 boys and three girls, police said.
The suspected attacker, who police named as Panya Khamrab, had served at Na Wang Police Station in Nong Bua Bamphu Province until he was arrested with methamphetamines last year, officials said.
Khamrab was listed among the dead, the officer in charge of the case, Col. Jackrapat Wijitwaitaya, told NBC News.
The exterior of a nursery in the northern Thai province of Nong Bua Lam Phu, where a former policeman shot dead 34 people on Thursday. AFPTV / via Getty Images
The suspect had appeared in court hours earlier on Thursday on a drugs charge that saw him fired from the police last year.
Khamrab entered the center at lunchtime when about 30 children were present, local official Jidapa Boonsom told Reuters. One teacher who was shot dead was eight months pregnant, she said.
Pictures circulating on social media, which have not been verified by NBC News, show children’s bodies lying prone in a room with alphabet posters and colorful learning material on the walls.
Police urged people to not share graphic pictures and video of the scene.
The prime minister has also ordered Lt. Gen. Yanyong Wech-Osoth, commander-in-chief of the police, to fly to Nong Bua Lamphu to help with the investigation.
Mass shootings are rare in Thailand, but not unknown.
In 2020, a soldier who was angry over a property deal gone sour killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations.
Jon Ungphakorn, a former Thai senator, wrote on Facebook that Thailand should have “strict gun control and restrictions like Japan, England and many European countries,” but added that this would require a citizen-led government to be realized.
Nat Sumon
Reuters contributed.