This handout from the Facebook page of Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau shows a picture of former policeman Panya Khamrab, who is believed to have killed at least 30 people in a nursery in the northern Thai province of Nong Bua Lam Phu. (Photo by Handout / THAILAND’S CENTRAL INVESTIGATION BUREAU / AFP)
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.
People gather outside of a daycare center’s scene of a mass shooting in the town of Uthai Sawan, 500 km (310 miles) northeast of Bangkok in the province of Nong Bua Lamphu, Thailand October 6, 2022. Sakdipat Boonsom/Handout via REUTERS
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 (310 miles) 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.
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