Thailand school shooting kills nine, wounds 23 near Bangkok

Bangkok, Thailand. Nine people were killed and 23 wounded after a 14-year-old student allegedly carried out shootings at his home and Debsirin Nonthaburi School on the outskirts of Bangkok on Friday.

School shooting

Student Khim, 14, said she and her classmates initially thought a gunshot had come from a construction site. Further loud bangs followed before a teacher moved them into a classroom, checked a messaging group and told them there was an active shooter in the building.

“I heard multiple gunshots and felt like we weren’t going to survive,” Khim, who asked to be identified only by her nickname, told Reuters on Saturday.

She said students moved desks to block the door, switched off the lights and gathered near classroom windows.

Police account

Police said the alleged gunman shot dead his grandparents at their home at dawn before taking a bus 18 kilometres to the school. He began shooting shortly before 10 a.m. local time.

Over about 40 minutes, the alleged gunman killed three teachers and two school officials before turning the gun on himself.

The shooting was Thailand’s worst mass shooting since 2022 and renewed debate over firearms control in Southeast Asia’s largest gun-owning nation.

Students sheltering

Khim was trapped in a classroom in Building 5 and checked messages on her tablet. Her elder sister told her she was in a classroom in neighbouring Building 4, while their mother warned her about the shooter.

“I said I knew, and I told her, ‘Mom, don’t call me, because the ringtone might go off,’” Khim said.

Photographs of the alleged shooter circulated on student chat groups as he moved through the school, which had more than 3,000 students and nearly 150 teachers, according to data from last year.