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Aidan Jones

At least five people were killed at a school near Thailand’s capital Bangkok on Friday morning after a student went on a gun rampage, with the tragedy shocking the nation and reopening questions over access to firearms.
The 14-year-old suspect had killed his grandparents before opening fire at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School, about an hour outside the capital, and then took his own life, officials said.
Those killed at the school were all teachers and staff, and police said the shooter fired at least 26 bullets using a gun that ‌belonged to his grandfather. An additional 34 rounds were found.
Police said 23 people were wounded in the incident.


The boy appeared to have shot his grandparents first before attending school as normal, said Royal Thai Police spokesman Police Lieutenant General Trairong Phiwphan. After class started, the boy opened fire inside his classroom before walking out and continuing to shoot.
Trairong said the teen fired more than 20 shots and over 30 rounds were found on him after he shot himself.
Several family members of the alleged shooter told police the boy usually kept to himself and was a good student. They said they were unaware of any troubles he faced at home or school.
Harrowing video footage shared on social media, apparently filmed by a pupil during the shooting, shows children in blue uniforms cowering under wooden desks, as five shots ring out while the school’s automatic public address system announces the time is 10am.
One pupil in the clip extends an arm out to comfort another who is crying as the shots are fired in what appears to be a methodical manner.
“It’s really awful, this shouldn’t have happened,” Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters. “I’m not just sad about the people who died, I’m sad that something like this could happen in our country at all.
“This is exactly what I’ve been saying – the reason the government doesn’t allow people to carry guns, doesn’t allow ownership, doesn’t allow licence renewals, is because of exactly this kind of thing.”

Anutin confirmed reports that the shooter was 14 years old and killed himself, according to Associated Press. He said the boy, who lived with his grandparents, had shown signs of stress related to school.
The gun, described by police as small and compact, was legally registered to the boy’s grandfather, Anutin said.
The prime minister on Friday also vowed to introduce a new firearms control law.
Anutin, who previously tightened gun ‌laws when he was interior minister, will now propose a law to restrict the carrying of firearms by the public.
“The new law will only allow government officials on duty to carry guns,” he told reporters on Friday, but did not provide any specifics for the envisaged legislation, including whether it would tighten gun ownership requirements.
Images shared by police showed what appeared to be the gunman’s weapon, a semi-automatic pistol with multiple rounds packed in a pouch, as questions emerged over his mental health and the motive behind the attack. Several pupils suggested the shooter had been bullied.
“Our school doesn’t check our bags when entering school,” Kittipat Choolert, 16, told This Week in Asia. “He fired several shots, I was two buildings away from him and I heard the gunshots, the entire school heard it and we were in shock.”

Tearful students in school uniforms held each other outside the school.
“I’m still in shock,” 16-year-old Thatchai Jaiyen told Agence France-Presse, expressing disbelief that a kind former teacher of his had been killed.
“She was such a good person. I thought that if she had encountered the shooter, she might have been able to reason with him. I never expected that the child would actually shoot her,” he said, his voice trailing away.
Student Purin Khumchoo said he felt depressed and bad for the people who were killed.
“The two teachers who were killed were lovely, and many students became better people because of them,” he said.
Emergency worker Kiatikhun Verapongpradith, 47, described arriving during the shooting and his team treating students with injuries to the back, ‌chest and arms. They found a teacher dead on an upper floor of the school, and in another room a female teacher with chest and arm wounds.
Kiatikhun said he was called to treat the teenage shooter after hearing a final shot. “We rushed up ‌and found ‌that the perpetrator had shot himself in the right side of the head and collapsed. When we got up there, we checked his pulse, he still had one, so we started CPR.”
The school suspended all classes for next week and instructed staff to work from home during that time.

It is the latest shooting to stun a nation where millions of firearms are in circulation, many unlicensed and unregistered and where shootings are commonplace, but mass killings involving children are rare.
Last weekend, Anutin was at the scene of the killing of five people in Chonburi, including Russian siblings, one shot by an alleged robber.
In February, a teacher ‌died and a ‌student was injured in southern Thailand’s Hat Yai district after a gunman opened fire at a school.
In 2023, a shooting by a 14-year-old boy killed two – a Chinese and a Myanmar citizen – at Siam Paragon, one of Thailand’s most famous downtown malls.
It was a tragedy that spurred calls for stricter gun controls, yet killings have continued, with regular police raids unearthing large caches of heavy weapons and pistols.

Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Asia, second only to Pakistan but far surpassing its Southeast Asian neighbours.
Data collected in 2017 by the groups Small Arms Survey and GunPolicy.org in their last extensive international study found civilian gun ownership in Thailand was about 15.1 guns per 100 people, compared with fewer than one per 100 in neighbouring Malaysia.
Thailand had 3.49 deaths by firearms per 100,000 people, according to 2023 statistics published by World Population Review.
“I think we need to [look at] why we still haven’t learned from everything that’s happened,” Krisanaphong Poothakool, a leading criminologist and adviser to the Royal Thai Police on police reform, told Channel One News.
“Why do firearms in Thailand seem so easy to access? The fact that children and youth have access to guns and gun sets is really not something normal in Thai society.”
In the worst episode of its kind in living memory, Panya Khamrab, a 34-year-old former policeman with a history of drug abuse, massacred 37 people – 24 of them children – in a shooting and stabbing rampage at a day care centre in the northeastern province of Nong Bua Lam Phu in 2022.
Additional reporting by Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse


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Thailand

Thai teen kills at least 5 in school, after shooting grandparents at home

Family members of a teacher who was killed in a school shooting are led to an ambulance in Bang Kruai district, Thailand’s Nonthaburi province, on Friday. Photo: TNS

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul (centre) arrives at Debsirin Nonthaburi School on Friday. Photo: Xinhua

A student reacts after being evacuated from the school on Friday. Photo: Reuters

A gun magazine and bullets in a bag, following a shooting incident at the school. Photo: Pohg Teck Tung Foundation via Reuters

Officials carry a computer out of the house where a teenage suspect is suspected of killing his grandparents before carrying out a school shooting in Thailand’s Nonthaburi province on Friday. Photo: AFP

Students run following a shooting at a school in Nonthaburi province, Thailand, on Friday. Photo: Reuters

Police officers work at the building where the shooting occurred at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province, Thailand, on Friday. Photo: Xinhua

A teacher reacts while embracing a person at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Thailand. Photo: Reuters

Police gather outside the house where a teenage suspect is suspected of killing his grandparents before carrying out a school shooting in Thailand’s Nonthaburi province on Friday. Photo: AFP

Thai justice system under fire after freed criminal confesses to killing 5

Thai murder suspect Thana Kerdthong is arrested by  police officers after a multi-province manhunt on Friday. Photo: Royal Thai Police/EPA  

Thana Kerdthong is brought in for investigation at the Huayyai police station in Chonburi province on Friday. Photo: Royal Thai Police/EPA

Thongchai Srinil  arrives at the Huayyai police station in Chonburi province for questioning on Friday. Photo: Royal Thai Police/EPA

Thai teacher who died in gun attack while saving pupil hailed as ‘selfless’

Head teacher Sasiphat Sinsamosorn, 54, died on Thursday, a day after she tried to protect a student after an alleged teen gunman attacked her school in Hat Yai. Photo: handout

Patongprathankiriwat School in Hat Yai, Songkhla province, where a teenager allegedly carried out  an attack with a stolen gun. Photo: Facebook

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Two fitness instructors grab a suspect who allegedly shot his wife and her mother outside a gym near a market in Buriram province, Thailand, on Wednesday afternoon. Photo: Facebook/Siam Buriram Rescue

The suspect who allegedly shot his wife and her mother outside a gym near a market in Buriram province, Thailand, on Wednesday is a police officer. Photo: Facebook/Siam Buriram Rescue

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The 14-year-old suspect, who later killed himself, had used a gun that belonged to his grandfather, authorities say


The 14-year-old suspect, who later killed himself, had used a gun that belonged to his grandfather, authorities say.


Crime

Anutin Charnvirakul

Thai teen kills at least 5 in school, after shooting grandparents at home

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The 14-year-old suspect, who later killed himself, had used a gun that belonged to his grandfather, authorities say

The 14-year-old suspect, who later killed himself, had used a gun that belonged to his grandfather, authorities say