Emergency personnel working at Debsirin Nonthaburi School. [Credit: Reuters/Chalinee Thirasupa]
No fewer than seven people have been killed in a shooting spree orchestrated by unnamed 14-yar-old male teenager in Thailand, according to a Reuters report on Friday.
Among the victims were his grandparents and five other staff, including teachers of the Debsirin Nonthaburi School, on the northwestern outskirts of the capital city, Bangkok.
The gunman fired at least 26 bullets using a gun that belonged to his grandfather, while an additional 34 rounds were found, the report stated.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters, “This is terrible for something like this to happen. I’m sad for those who died and sad for something like this to happen in our country.”
The remains of a bullet lies on the floor in the building where the shooting incident began at Debsirin Nonthaburi School [Credit: Reuters/Chalinee Thirasupa]The bodies of his grandparents were discovered by the police in their home, as Charnvirakul noted that the gunman had suffered from stress related to his studies.
One of the students in the school, an 18-year-old, with names undisclosed, had presumed that the sound was from firecrackers, saying, “I didn’t think it was a gun at first. There were many shots: bang, bang, bang. Then it went quiet. Then it started again.”
According to the report, Friday’s incident is the latest in a succession of mass shootings in recent years in Thailand, which has by far the largest number of guns in civilian possession in Southeast Asia, estimated at 40%. It added that this is the second school shooting in Thailand this year after a teacher died and a student was injured in February.
An emergency worker, Kiatikhun Verapongpradith, 47, narrated that the gunman shot himself in the head.
“We rushed up and found that the perpetrator had shot himself in the right side of the head and collapsed. When we got up there, we checked his pulse, he still had one, so we started CPR,” he said, adding that upon arriving at the school, his team treated students with injuries in the back, chest and arms.
They found a teacher dead on an upper floor of the school, and in another room a female teacher with chest and arm wounds.
In another narration, a female seventh grader, still dressed n school uniform, with her mother beside her, told the BBC how she managed to escape the shooting. She added that the gunman came in close contact with one of the teachers while they were discussing.
“She was talking to me when [the gunman] showed up and shot her. I couldn’t see anything but a [cloud] of dust. I had to climb over the school fence to escape with other friends,” she said.
Under the country’s laws, the illegal possession of arms attracts imprisonment of up to 10 years, Reuters said.
However, the police hasn’t reported that the firearm used by the boy, which belonged to his grandfather, is illegal.
In the 2025 academic year, the school had an enrolment of about 3,100 students and 147 teachers, according to district authorities.
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