The gunman, who authorities say was fired from the force earlier this year for a drug violation, killed himself after killing his wife and child at home. A witness said staff at the daycare locked the door when they saw the gunman approach with a gun, but he fired inside. At least 36 people were killed in the attack, according to police spokesman Archayon Kraithong. At least 10 people were injured, six of whom were in critical condition, he said. At least 24 of the dead were children, mostly preschoolers. “The teacher who died, she had a child in her arms,” a witness, whose name was not released, told Thailand’s Kom Chad Luek TV at the scene. “I didn’t think he was going to kill kids, but he shot the door and shot right through it.” WATCHES | A teacher describes what she saw:
Kindergarten teacher in Thailand tells story of attack
A kindergarten teacher in Thailand that was the scene of a fatal attack has told how she escaped and ran to warn others before they encountered the killer.
Suspect identified
Police identified the suspect as 34-year-old former police officer Panya Kamrap. Police Lt. Gen. Paisal Luesomboon told PPTV in an interview that he was dismissed from the force earlier this year for drug-related offences. In the attack, he used several weapons, including a handgun, a shotgun and a knife, Luesomboon said. A poster released by Thailand’s Criminal Investigation Bureau shows the suspected attacker in the attack. Police identified the suspect as 34-year-old former police officer Panya Kamrap. (Thailand CIB/The Associated Press) The attack took place in the rural town of Uthai Sawan in Thailand’s northeastern Nongbua Lamphu province, one of the country’s poorest regions, about 500 kilometers northeast of Bangkok and about 300 kilometers south of the border with Laos. Local police chief Damrongsak Kittiprapha told reporters that the suspect was a sergeant in the force before he was fired and that the main weapon he used was a 9mm pistol he had bought himself. “We’re still investigating all of this and we have to learn from it,” he said. “Today is the first day and we don’t have all the details.”
Homicides followed at home: police
Police have not given a full breakdown of the death toll, but said at least 22 children and two adults were killed at the daycare. At least two more children were killed elsewhere. Firearm-related deaths in Thailand are much lower than in countries such as the United States and Brazil, but higher than in other Asian countries such as Japan and Singapore that have strict gun control laws. weapons. Residents queued to donate blood at the hospital in Uthai Sawan after the attack which police said also left at least 10 injured, six critically. (Warnwarn Ch/The Associated Press) Last month, an employee opened fire on colleagues at the Thai Military War College in Bangkok, killing two and injuring another before being arrested. The country’s previous worst mass shooting involved a disgruntled soldier who opened fire in and around a shopping mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima in 2020, killing 29 people and holding security forces at bay for about 16 hours before he was finally killed by them.
