A Thai gunman killed his family and himself after shooting dead 32 people including 23 children at a nursery in Thailand's northeast on Thursday. Police colonel Jakkapat Vijitraithaya from Nong Bua Lam Phu province said the gunman went home and killed his wife and child after the mass shooting. The attacker, armed with a shotgun, a pistol and a knife, opened fire on the childcare centre in Nong Bua Lam Phu province at about 12:30 pm (0530 GMT) before fleeing the scene in a vehicle, the force said. "The death toll from the shooting incident... is at least 30 people," Anucha Burapachaisri, a spokesman for the Thai prime minister's office, said. Police colonel Jakkapat Vijitraithaya, from the province where the attack happened, identified the gunman as Panya Khamrab, a police lieutenant colonel he said was dismissed from the force last year for drug use. Jakkapat said there were 23 children among the dead, aged two to three years old. The mass killing comes less than a month after a serving army officer shot dead two colleagues at a military training base in the capital Bangkok. While Thailand has high rates of gun ownership, mass shootings are extremely rare. But in the past year,...
↧