A former police officer stormed a kindergarten in northern Thailand on Thursday, killing at least 37 people, most of them children, in the worst massacre in the country before killing his family and killing himself.
According to the new toll of the Royal Thai Police, 37 people were killed, including 23 children, and 12 wounded in Nong Bua Lamphu (north), in addition to the attacker.
Police Colonel Jakapat Vijitrathaya said 34-year-old former policeman Baniya Khamrab, who was carrying a firearm, pistol and knife, opened fire at a nursery at 12:30 local time (06:30 GMT).
Then he fled by car and ran over many pedestrians before killing his wife and child and then committed suicide.
“The attacker stopped in front of the nursery and shot and killed four employees who were eating lunch in front of it,” nursery director Nathesha Bunchom told AFP.
“He kicked the front door, got in and started chopping off the children’s heads with a knife,” she added.
A video clip following the tragedy showed the collapsed parents in a shelter near the nursery.
‘Brutal’ massacre
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha has ordered an investigation following this “brutal” massacre, he wrote on his Facebook account.
The prime minister asked the police chief to “go to the site and expedite the investigations.”
“He tried to hit other people on the road. He hit a motorbike and two people were injured. I ran away,” Witness Bawena Burishan, 31, who was on her motorcycle near her shop, told AFP. “There was blood everywhere,” she added.
National Police Chief Damrongsak Kittiprapat said at a press conference that the shooter, who lives near the nursery school, was sacked in June due to a drug problem.
“He was due to be tried tomorrow (Friday) over his drug problem,” he said. “The attacker was in a frenzy,” he added, but a blood test would determine whether he had used drugs, indicating that the weapon used was legally and individually purchased.
He stressed that “what happened today will be a lesson to prevent its recurrence in the future.”
Nong Bua Lamphu, near the “Golden Triangle” on the borders of Burma and Laos, has been for decades the center of drug production in the region.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said it was “sad and shocked by the tragic shooting”.
British Prime Minister Liz Truss tweeted: “Shocked by the horrific events in Thailand. My sympathies are with those affected and the paramedics.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote: “It is impossible to understand this terrible news from Thailand. The Australian people offer our deepest condolences.”
Thailand is one of the countries in the world with the largest number of arms in circulation.
A shooting took place in February 2020 by an army officer in Thailand at a shopping mall in Nakhon Ratchasima, killing 29 people.
The shooter, a 31-year-old officer, was shot dead by security forces 17 hours later. And he started shooting following a dispute with his official.
“This is unprecedented in Thailand, and I want this to be the last time such a crisis occurs,” Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha said at the time.
A Royal Army Sergeant-Major was also behind a shooting attack at a military post in Bangkok in September that killed two soldiers.
