At least 38 people – including at least 20 children – have been killed following a former police officer opened fire at a kindergarten in Thailand, security sources in the country have confirmed.
The attack took place in the province of Nong Bua Lamphu, in the northeast of the country. The assailant, who was carrying a shotgun, a pistol and a knife, killed then to his family and committed suicide.
The attacker, who police identified as 34-year-old Panya Kamrab, entered the nursery and indiscriminately shot and stabbed children and adults before fleeing. At the moment, the motives for the attack are not known.
Apparently, the ex-agent had been fired last year for drug use, according to the Thai television network “Thai PBS”.
Police say the assailant fled in a white Toyota van with Thai license plates.
Among the victims there at least 20 kidsan official from the security forces of Nong Bua Lamphu province told the AFP agency.
The youngest victim is only two years old. There’s also 12 wounded.
At the time of the attack, regarding 30 children were in the nursery. Kamrab arrived at the compound following lunchtime and became nervous when his son was not there, according to police.
He first opened fire ” once morest four or five nursery officials,” a witness who worked nearby, Jidapa Boonsom, told Archyde.com. One of the victims is a school worker who was eight months pregnant.
“At first people thought it was fireworks,” Bonsoom said. The assailant then reportedly entered a room where the children were sleeping.
Shortly following, Kamrab got into his truck and drove the vehicle into a group of bystanders.
“He was trying to bump into others on the road. She rammed into a motorcycle and two people were injured. I had to speed up to get away from him,” another witness, Paweena Purichan, told AFP, describing how the attacker, known to her in the area for his drug addiction, was driving erratically.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has ordered an urgent investigation into the incident, calling it “shocking.”
Mass shootings are rare in Thailand. In 2020, a soldier killed 21 people and injured dozens more in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima.
Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC World. Download the new version of our app and activate it so you don’t miss out on our best content.
