Massacre at daycare centre in Thailand leaves 39 dead, including at least 24 children
Officials enter the site of the attack at the daycare centre in Nongbua Lamphu.(AP: TPBS)
At least 38 people, primarily children, have been killed in a massacre after a former police officer used a knife and a gun at a daycare centre in north-eastern Thailand, authorities say.
Key points:
- A gunman has killed 38 people in an attack that began at a daycare centre in Thailand
- The former police officer also killed his wife and child before taking his own life
- It is the deadliest massacre in the country’s history
WARNING: Readers may find details in this story distressing.
The dead include at least 24 children, some as young as two years old, as well as two teachers and one police officer.
At least 12 people were injured in addition to the 38 deaths.
A Thai official confirmed to Reuters that the gunman also killed his wife and child during the incident on Thursday afternoon, before killing himself.
Police said that the former police officer had legally purchased the gun he used in the attack, but that he used a knife, mainly, in the killing of the children at the facility.
The initial attack came about 12:30pm, local time, when the man entered the childcare centre in the town of Nongbua Lamphu, authorities said.
About 30 children were at the centre when the gunman came in, district official Jidapa Boonsom said.
The man first shot four or five staff, including a teacher who was eight months pregnant, she said.
“At first people thought it was fireworks,” she added.
According to police, 19 boys, three girls and two adults were killed in the building before the gunman fled.
After he fled, the gunman continued to shoot from his car, hitting several people, police Major General Paisal Luesomboon told the AP.
Police Colonel Jakkapat Vijitraithaya, from the province of Nong Bua Lamphu, identified the gunman as 34-year-old Panya Kamrap, a former police lieutenant-colonel he said was dismissed from the force last year for drug use.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha has ordered an urgent probe into the attack, stating that it had shocked the country.
“Concerning this horrifying incident … I would like to express my deepest sorrow and condolences to the families of the dead and injured,” he wrote on his official Facebook page, adding that he had told the national police chief to “fast-track an investigation”.
The rate of gun ownership in Thailand is high compared with some other countries in the region, but official figures do not include huge numbers of illegal weapons, many of which have been brought in across porous borders over the years from strife-torn neighbours.
Mass shootings are rare, but in 2020 a soldier angry over a property deal killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations.
ABC/Wires
