On Thursday afternoon, former police officer Panya Kamrap opened fire in the town of Nongbua Lamphu in the country’s northeast, killing at least 24 children and 11 adults. At 12.30 p.m. local time, the 34-year-old killed 19 boys, three girls, and two adults before fleeing the scene, according to police. According to local police chief Paisal Luesomboon, he used multiple weapons in the attack, including a handgun, a shotgun, and a knife. He then shot at people from his car as he drove home, killing his wife and child before killing himself, according to police. After leaving the nursery, Kamrap killed nine other adults, including his wife and a police officer, as well as two other children, including his own son. The disgraced ex-officer was fired from the force earlier this year for drug-related offences, according to the police chief in an interview with Thai TV channel PPTV. ‘He shot at the door and shot right through it,’ says the witness. When staff at the nursery saw the suspect approaching with a handgun, they locked the door, but he shot through it, according to a witness on Thailand’s Kom Chad Leuk television. “The teacher who died had a child in her arms,” an unidentified woman at the scene said. I didn’t think he’d kill children, but he shot at and through the door.” In a post on his official Facebook page, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha expressed his “deepest condolences” to the victims of the “shocking” shooting. He stated that the country’s police chief is travelling to the area to support those involved. Firearm-related deaths in Thailand are lower than in the United States or Brazil, but higher than in countries with strict gun control laws such as Japan and Singapore. The previous worst mass shooting in the country occurred in 2020, when a soldier shot 29 people at a shopping centre in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima.
