BANGKOK — A former police officer killed at least 24 children and 11 adults with his firearms in a gun and knife attack that began at a childcare center in Thailand last Thursday, authorities said.
Photo and video posts appearing on various online media clearly show that the children’s care on the first floor is covered in blood and sleeping mats.
CCTV footage from the scene shows family members of the exposed children crying outside the building as police and medical staff move around as ambulances pull by.
A police statement identified the attacker as a former police officer and said he walked out of the police station shortly after noon and entered a childcare center in the northeastern Thai city of Nongbua Lamphu.
police Maj. Gen. Paisal Luesomboon told The Associated Press that the assailant entered the building and killed twenty-two children a
nd two adults with his own firearms before fleeing. But while fleeing, he started shooting at people from the car as well.
Police said he killed his wife and child and later himself after coming home
The number of firearm-related deaths in Thailand is much lower than in countries such as the United States and Brazil, but higher than in countries with strict gun control laws, such as Japan and Singapore. The pace of guns related passings in 2019 was around 4 for every 100,000, contrasted and around 11 for each 100,000 in the U.S. what’s more, almost 23 for each 100,000 in Brazil.
According to a database maintained by a Sydney school, such incidents are rare in Thailand. However, gun ownership and gun homicide rates are higher in Thailand than in other Asian countries. Thailand has a population of about 70 million, of which more than 10 million have privately owned firearms, including more than four million illegal guns.
The largest and deadliest massacre in Thailand’s history occurred in 2020, when a soldier angry over a land dispute killed 29 people and injured 57 in the town of Nakhon.
Soon after the news of this infamous shooting in Na klang district first surfaced on various social media sites, requests for blood donation started pouring in. People rush to their nearest district hospital and donate blood. Hospital authorities later said they had received enough blood to treat the injured.