A Thai teenager killed at least six people and himself at a school outside Bangkok on Friday after fatally shooting his grandparents, police said, in the Southeast Asian nation's worst mass killing since 2022.
Students streamed out of the Debsirin Nonthaburi School, on the capital's northwestern outskirts, as the wounded were loaded on to ambulances and teachers hugged each other and cried. In photos circulated by emergency workers, one person is seen lying down on a stretcher outside an ambulance, while another is attended to by a medic.
Police said the shooter, who was 14 years old, fired at least 26 bullets, and was found with 34 additional ammunition rounds. The gun had belonged to his grandfather, police said.
One 18-year-old student told Reuters he initially thought there were firecrackers going off or someone banging an object.
"I didn't think it was a gun at first," he said. "There were many shots: bang bang bang. Then it went quiet. Then it started again."
SECOND SCHOOL SHOOTING
Education Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong told Reuters that both teachers and students were among the casualties. Police identified the perpetrator as a student.
It is the second school shooting in Thailand this year after a teacher died and a student was injured in the south of the country in February.
Emergency worker Kiatikhun Verapongpradith, 47, described arriving as the shooting was ongoing and his team treated students with injuries in the back, chest and arms. They found a male teacher lying dead on an upper floor of the school, and in another room they found a female teacher with wounds in her chest and arm.
He said he was called to treat the teenage shooter after hearing a final shot.
"We rushed up and found that the perpetrator had shot himself in the right side of the head and collapsed. When we got up there, we checked his pulse, he still had one, so we started CPR."
The suspect was then taken to the hospital, he said.
In the 2025 academic year, the school had an enrollment of around 3,100 students and 147 teachers, according to district authorities.
"This is terrible for something like this to happen," Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters. "I'm sad for those who died and sad for something like this to happen in our country."
Students streamed out of the Debsirin Nonthaburi School, on the capital's northwestern outskirts, as the wounded were loaded on to ambulances and teachers hugged each other and cried. In photos circulated by emergency workers, one person is seen lying down on a stretcher outside an ambulance, while another is attended to by a medic.
Police said the shooter, who was 14 years old, fired at least 26 bullets, and was found with 34 additional ammunition rounds. The gun had belonged to his grandfather, police said.
One 18-year-old student told Reuters he initially thought there were firecrackers going off or someone banging an object.
"I didn't think it was a gun at first," he said. "There were many shots: bang bang bang. Then it went quiet. Then it started again."
SECOND SCHOOL SHOOTING
Education Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong told Reuters that both teachers and students were among the casualties. Police identified the perpetrator as a student.
It is the second school shooting in Thailand this year after a teacher died and a student was injured in the south of the country in February.
Emergency worker Kiatikhun Verapongpradith, 47, described arriving as the shooting was ongoing and his team treated students with injuries in the back, chest and arms. They found a male teacher lying dead on an upper floor of the school, and in another room they found a female teacher with wounds in her chest and arm.
He said he was called to treat the teenage shooter after hearing a final shot.
"We rushed up and found that the perpetrator had shot himself in the right side of the head and collapsed. When we got up there, we checked his pulse, he still had one, so we started CPR."
The suspect was then taken to the hospital, he said.
In the 2025 academic year, the school had an enrollment of around 3,100 students and 147 teachers, according to district authorities.
"This is terrible for something like this to happen," Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters. "I'm sad for those who died and sad for something like this to happen in our country."
