REUTERS
October 6, 2022 at 19:00 JST
BANGKOK--Thirty-four people were killed in Thailand on Thursday in a gun and knife attack at a daycare center by a former policeman who killed his wife and child before turning his weapon on himself, police said.
There were 22 children among the victims of the suspected attacker, who had been discharged from the service last year for drug-related reasons, district police official Chakkraphat Wichitvaidya told media.
He cited witnesses as saying the gunman was also seen wielding a knife.
About 30 children were at the center when the gunman arrived, fewer than usual, as heavy rain had kept many people away, district official Jidapa Boonsom, who was working in a nearby office at the time, told Reuters.
"The shooter came in around lunch time and shot four or five officials at the childcare center first," said Jidapa, adding that among them was a teacher who was eight months pregnant.
"At first people thought it was fireworks," she said.
The gunman then forced his way into a locked room where children were sleeping, Jidapa said, to kill children there with a knife.
Videos posted on social media showed sheets covering what appeared to be the bodies of children lying in pools of blood at the center in the town of Uthai Sawan, 500 km northeast of Bangkok in the province of Nong Bua Lamphu.
Reuters could not immediately authenticate the footage.
Earlier, police said a manhunt was under way for the shooter, and a government spokesman said the prime minister had alerted all agencies to catch the culprit.
Mass shootings are rare in Thailand, even though the rate of gun ownership is high compared with some other countries in the region, and illegal weapons are common.
In 2020, a soldier angry over a property deal gone sour killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
In this mug shot released by the Thailand Criminal Investigations Bureau, a suspected assailant is shown in the attack in the town of Nongbua Lamphu, northern Thailand, on Oct. 6. (Thailand CIB via AP Photo)
