- Nation in shock after 37 people, mostly children, were killed
- Thai media question why red flags weren’t raised earlier
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemns attack
Thailand was in mourning on Friday after 37 people were killed, most of them young children, in a brutal gun and knife attack at a preschool centre in the country’s northeast.
The attacker, Panya Khamrab, a former police officer, opened fire and stabbed children as they slept at the centre in Na Klang district in the northern Thai province of Nong Bua Lam Phu at about noon on Thursday, police and witnesses said.
Police identified the attacker as Panya Khamrab, a 34-year-old former police lieutenant colonel who was dismissed from the force in January for methamphetamine possession and officially fired in June. He had appeared in court earlier on Thursday on a drugs charge and was due to appear again on Friday.
Khamrab is believed to have killed at least 30 people in the nursery and Police reports indicate that after leaving the Centre, he drove his car towards and shot at bystanders then returned home, where he shot himself, his wife and his child.
The Thai government ordered all Thai flags to be lowered to half-mast on Friday, while Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha was expected to visit the area in the morning.
“This shouldn’t happen”, Chan-ocha said on Thursday, adding; “I feel deep sadness toward the victims and their relatives.”
Also, the Thai King and Queen were expected to visit the town later on Friday. On Thursday night, pink and white coffins adorned with gold and bearing the bodies of the 22 children were driven away in the darkness.
“All Thai people, and all people around the world who know about this … will feel so depressed and saddened,” said Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul.
Thai TBS television reported that some family members of the attack victims were still at the scene of the rampage late into the evening while mental health workers sat with them.
A teacher told the broadcaster that the assailant got out of a car and immediately shot a man eating lunch outside, then fired more shots. When the attacker paused to reload, the teacher had an opportunity to run inside.
“I ran to the back, the children were asleep”, said the young woman, who did not give her name, choking back her words. “The children were two or three years old.”
Another witness said staff at the daycare centre had locked the door, but the suspect shot his way in.
“The teacher who died, she had a child in her arms”, the witness, whose name wasn’t given, told Thailand’s Kom Chad Luek television, adding; “I didn’t think he would kill children, but he shot at the door and shot right through it”.
At least 10 people were wounded, including six critically, police spokesperson Archayon Kraithong said.
Though mass shootings are rare in Thailand, gun ownership rates are high. The attack comes two years after a mass shooting at a shopping mall in Nakhon Ratchasima, which was carried out by a soldier angry at his superiors.
In an editorial on Friday, the Bangkok Post said: “Both cases beg questions about the recruitment process employed by the army and the Royal Thai Police (RTP).”
“Above all, people will want to know how the RTP hired this man, who reportedly admitted to his superior that he had been taking narcotics since he was a teenager. Moreover, he had been punished for bad behaviour on several occasions.”
Officials said the results of an autopsy would determine whether or not he had taken drugs prior to the attack. “Primarily, we believe that it’s because of the drugs and the stress [of his court appearance]”, said Police chief Damrongsak Kittiprapat.
Politicians across the world have offered their condolences, including British prime minister Liz Truss and Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “I’m profoundly saddened by the heinous shooting at a childcare centre in Thailand. Learning centres should be spaces where children feel safe and never targeted. My condolences to the victims’ loved ones and the people of Thailand.”
