A Thai teenager killed seven people in a deadly rampage that began at his home and ended at his school outside Bangkok, police said Friday.
Armed police walk through the school campus in Nonthaburi, Thailand, where a mass shooting took place Friday.
The 14-year-old boy used his grandfather’s gun to kill two of his grandparents and went on to attack his high school north of the Thai capital, according to police.
The shooter killed two teachers and three other school staff in Nonthaburi, Thailand’s second-largest city. Police said the suspect then turned the gun on himself. He was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Nine people, including two students, were in critical condition, Thailand’s health ministry said, while more than 20 others sustained lighter injuries.
The shooting at Debsirin Nonthaburi School was the latest in a spate of shootings in Thailand, which has more guns owned by private citizens than any other country in Southeast and East Asia.
The crime scene at Debsirin Nonthaburi School.
The Thai government doesn’t release data on gun ownership in the country of 72 million people. However, a 2018 report by the Small Arms Survey, a research project at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland, found there were around 10.3 million firearms in civilian hands in Thailand, of which 4.1 million were unlicensed.
Last February, an 18-year-old gunman killed the director of a school in southern Thailand, just months after another shooter killed at least five people at a popular market in Bangkok.
The country’s worst mass killing by a single perpetrator in recent history took place in October 2022, when a former policeman used a gun and a knife to kill at least 36 people, including 22 children at a daycare center.
That and other incidents have drawn attention to a controversial Thai government program that allows police and soldiers to buy subsidized firearms. Experts say that the program has contributed to the high number of unlicensed guns in circulation in the country.
Trairong Piwpan, a spokesman for the Royal Thai Police, said the suspected shooter had found his grandfather’s 9mm handgun along with ammunition. He then shot and killed his grandparents at the home he shared with them before proceeding to his high school, Trairong said.
Police gather outside the home where the teenage suspect lived with his grandparents.
Foithong Choenyim, a volunteer first responder who said his daughter was a seventh-grader at Debsirin Nonthaburi School, told local media that he rushed to the school to help the injured.
When rescue workers entered the school building, they found the suspect armed with a handgun and injured teachers and students in corridors and on staircases, Foithong said. Some classrooms had quickly closed and locked their doors, while students ran from others to escape and seek help.
Police said they attempted to persuade the suspect to surrender, but he shot himself. A search of his bag found more than 30 additional rounds of ammunition.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the suspect may have acted out of stress and frustration over his academic performance.
“I understand that his grandmother was a teacher and wanted him to perform well in school, and she was quite strict and demanding,” Anutin said after being briefed by investigators. “From interviews with his close friends, police also learned that he had been under stress over his studies and had complained about it.”
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