At least 34 people including 23 children were killed on Thursday in a mass shooting at a child day-care centre in Thailand, police said. The shooting took place in a northeastern province of Nongbua Lamphu early in the afternoon.
Victims included both children and adults, police informed.
The gunman, cops said, was an ex-police officer. After initial efforts to apprehend the gunman as Thailand's Prime Minister alerted all agencies, Reuters reported that the gunman killed his own family before shooting himself after the shooting, as per police officials.
Police colonel Jakkapat Vijitraithaya, from the province where the attack happened, identified the gunman as Panya Khamrab. The officer was dismissed from service last year for drug abuse, AFP reported.
Thailand media reported that the gunman also used knives in the attack following which he fled the building of the daycare centre.
At least two bodies were seen on the floor of the center covered in white sheets, Reuters reported.