A student shot several people at a high school north of Thailand’s capital on Friday, killing three teachers and three students and wounding several others, Thai police said.
The shooting happened at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province northwest of Bangkok.
The gunman shot and killed his grandparents at their home Friday morning before opening fire at the school on Bangkok’s outskirts, police said. He fired 26 rounds and another 34 rounds of ammunition were found at the scene, police said in a statement.
Royal Thai Police spokesperson Trairong Piwpan said the motive for the attack was still being investigated. He said the gun was believed to have been taken from a member of the student’s family.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul offered his condolences and said he had ordered relevant officials to take care of the victims.
“It’s such a terrible incident. It should never have happened. How could this happen in our country?” Anutin told reporters at Bangkok’s Government House.
Shocked students, worried parents
Images from the scene about an hour after the shooting showed people standing outside the school comforting one another and police and first responders walking around inside the school.
Photos published by local media show the suspect wearing a purple school uniform and carrying a black cross-body bag, with several bullet casings visible on the ground.
Traffic near the Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi was nearly at a standstill, an AFP journalist saw, with local media reporting that parents were picking up their children following the incident.
Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the region, with around 10 million firearms estimated to be in circulation – one for every seven inhabitants.
Past promises of tightening gun laws have not prevented repeated shootings. (France24)