A former Thai policeman killed at least 34 people in a mass shooting and also his wife and children before killing himself, police said. The shooting took place at a preschool daycare center in Thailand’s Nong Bua Lamphu province.
The dead include children as well as adults. The police also informed that the attacker stabbed his victims before escaping from the site. District police official Chakkraphat Wichitvaidya, while briefing the media, said that there were 22 children killed by the 34-year-old attacker, who was relieved of his duties last year for reasons that include drug-related issues. Another district official said that at the time of the attack, there were 30 children at the center.
The injured, about a dozen people, have been taken to the Nong Bua Lamphu district hospital. A local official working nearby, Jidapa Boonsom, told the British news agency Reuters, “The shooter came in around lunchtime and shot four or five officials at the childcare center. She said that people first thought it to be fireworks. “The gunman then forced entry to a locked room where children were sleeping,” she added.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha described the shooting as “a shocking event.”
Police revealed the attacker’s name as Panya Kamrab, a local who was a police lieutenant colonel before he was dismissed last year for drug use.
He was armed with a shotgun, a pistol, and a knife as he stormed the nursery. Police had said that a manhunt for the gunman was in progress, and a government spokeswoman claimed that the prime minister had notified all agencies to find the offender.
