A 14-year-old boy in Thailand, described as 'troubled' and 'bullied' by a classmate, killed his grandparents before shooting dead five more people at a school on Friday, police said. The boy first shot dead his two grandparents, using his grandfather's handgun, then went to a secondary school in Nonthaburi province, bordering Bangkok, and killed five school staff, national police said in a statement. The young perpetrator also died, the statement said, with a police official telling AFP he had killed himself. Officials earlier gave a higher toll of eight dead, which had included the suspect, and initially said students were among the victims.
Dozens of police and emergency responders gathered outside the cordoned-off Debsirin Nonthaburi School, AFP journalists saw, while parents waited to pick up their children and tearful students and staff comforted each other outside. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters at the scene that 'police interrogated his close friend who said the suspect had been under stress' related to his schooling.
'His actions also suggested that he had clearly planned' the assault, Anutin added. 'The gun was a registered firearm and was kept at a house, but somehow he gained access to it.' The prime minister said more than 30 people were injured, with around nine in critical condition.
Education Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong pledged to provide mental health assistance to students and ramp up security measures at educational institutions. 'We haven't checked whether students have brought weapons to school. Our level of security is not that tight,' he told reporters at the school. Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the region, with around 10 million firearms estimated to be in circulation -- one for every seven inhabitants. Past promises of tightening gun laws have not prevented repeated shootings.
In a similar incident in February, a teenager in the south of the country killed the principal and wounded two students in a school shooting. The teen had stabbed a police officer with a knife, stole his pistol and then used the weapon in the shooting. A local police chief said at the time that the suspect had been discharged from psychiatric hospitalisation. In 2022, an ex-policeman armed with a gun and a knife stormed into a nursery in the country's north, killing 24 children and 12 adults in one of Thailand's deadliest massacres.
