After the massacre, the attacker murdered his wife and son, and then committed suicide
At least 34 people have been killed, 22 of them children, in an armed attack by a former police officer on a kindergarten in northern Thailand. The alleged attacker, who held the position of Police Lieutenant General, has entered the center with a firearm and bladed weapons and has begun to shoot and stab dozens of people.
Some 30 children were in the center when the attacker arrived, a smaller number than usual, as heavy rains in the area had kept many people away. “The shooter came in around lunchtime and first shot four or five nursery staff,” said a witness who works at a nearby office. “At first people thought it was fireworks,” he has said. Then, the armed man forced his way into a closed room where some children were sleeping, whom he stabbed.
Image of the alleged murderer distributed by the Police.
Videos posted on social media show the horrifying images of sheets covering the bodies of children lying in pools of blood.
After the massacre, the attacker has managed to escape and has moved to his home, where he has killed his wife and three children before committing suicide, according to information from the newspaper ‘Thairath’. The man had been expelled from the Police Corps after being involved in a drug trafficking case.
Mass shootings are rare in Thailand, even though the gun ownership rate is high compared to other countries in the region, and illegal weapons are common. In 2020, a soldier angry over a real estate deal gone wrong killed at least 29 people and injured 57.