Central Investigation Bureau
Thai Police identified the gunman who fled the scene after the incident.
At least 24 children and 11 adults have been killed in an attack at a childcare centre in northeastern Thailand, authorities say.
The gunman fled the scene, shooting from his car as he drove home, where he killed his wife and child before taking his own life, police said.
The initial attack came at about 12.30pm when the assailant, identified as a former police officer, entered the childcare centre in the town of Nongbua Lamphu, authorities said.
Nineteen boys, three girls and two adults were killed in the building before the perpetrator fled, according to a police statement.
Videos carried the sound of wails as frantic family members wept and watched outside the nursery school building. Ambulances stood by as police and medical workers walked in the schoolyard.
According to Thai media reports, the gunman also used knives in the attack.
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The shooting happened while the children at the pre-school were sleeping, the Guardian reported.
A village chief told the Guardian the children at the centre were of kindergarten age.
Further details were not immediately available.
TPBS/AP
Officials at a daycare centre that was attacked by a gunman on Thursday.
Firearm-related deaths in Thailand are much lower than in countries like the United States and Brazil, but higher than in countries like Japan and Singapore that have strict gun control laws.
The rate of firearms related deaths in 2019 was about 4 per 100,000, compared with about 11 per 100,000 in the US and nearly 23 per 100,000 in Brazil.
Last month, a clerk shot co-workers at Thailand’s Army War College in Bangkok, killing two and wounding another before he was arrested.
The country’s previous worst mass shooting involved a disgruntled soldier who opened fire in and around a mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima in 2020, killing 29 people and holding off security forces for some 16 hours before eventually being killed by them.
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