
In this image taken from video, a distraught woman is comforted outside the site of an attack at a daycare center, on Thursday in the town of Nongbua Lamphu, north eastern Thailand.
17:26 JST, October 6, 2022
BANGKOK (AP) — A former police officer killed at least 24 children and 11 adults in a gun and knife attack that began at a child care center in Thailand on Thursday, authorities said. The assailant fled the first scene, shooting from his car as he drove home, before killing his wife and child and taking his own life.
Photos and videos posted online of the day care showed the floor of one room was smeared with blood and sleeping mats scattered about. Alphabet pictures and other colorful decorations adorned the walls.
In videos from the scene, frantic family members could be heard weeping outside the building. Ambulances stood by as police and medical workers walked around.
Authorities identified the assailant as a former police officer and said he entered the child care center after noon in the northeastern Thai town of Nongbua Lamphu.
Twenty-two children and two adults were killed in the building before the assailant fled, according to a police statement. But he continued to shoot people from his car, police Maj. Gen. Paisal Luesomboon told The Associated Press.
After arriving home, he killed his wife and child and then himself, police said.
Police said he killed another two children and nine adults outside the child care center, including his wife and his son.
Firearm-related deaths in Thailand are much lower than in countries like the United States and Brazil, but higher than in countries like Japan and Singapore that have strict gun control laws. The rate of firearms related deaths in 2019 was about 4 per 100,000, compared with about 11 per 100,000 in the U.S. and nearly 23 per 100,000 in Brazil.
Last month, a clerk shot co-workers at Thailand’s Army War College in Bangkok, killing two and wounding another before he was arrested.
The country’s previous worst mass shooting involved a disgruntled soldier who opened fire in and around a mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima in 2020, killing 29 people and holding off security forces for some 16 hours before eventually being killed by them.
"World" POPULAR ARTICLE
-
Vietnam, Thailand Aim to Grow Rice Exports to Japan
-
Glass Stresses Need for U.S.-Japan Alliance to Invest, Innovate; Commends Japan for Taking Leading Role in Region
-
Japanese Firefighter Who Worked in Quake-Hit Myanmar Hopes Others Will Help in Intl Relief Efforts
-
Head of Interim Bangladesh Govt Yunus: Election to Be Held Between Dec. 2025 and June 2026; Cotton, LNG Eyed as Bargaining Chips in Bangladesh-U.S. Trade Talks
-
Egyptian Candidate for Unesco’s Top Spot Stresses Agency’s Role in Times of Crisis
JN ACCESS RANKING
-
Japanese Researchers Develop ‘Transparent Paper’ as Alternative to Plastics; New Material Is Biodegradable, Can Be Produced with Low Carbon Emissions
-
Average Retail Rice Price Up for Second Consecutive Week; More Than Double Same Period Last Year
-
Japan’s Cooperation in Alaska LNG Development Project Emerges in Japan-U.S. Tariff Negotiations; But Industry Concerns Exist
-
Trump: Nippon Steel Will Part Own U.S. Steel, U.S. to Be in Control; Share Distribution, Other Details Remain Unclear
-
Japan’s Maglev Shinkansen’s Partially Completed Station Unveiled; Station Will Be Only Underground Stop Between Shinagawa, Nagoya