At least seven people have died, including the suspected teenage gunman, following a shooting at a secondary school in Thailand’s Nonthaburi province, north of Bangkok, in one of the country’s latest incidents of gun violence at an educational institution.
Thai police said on Friday that the victims included three teachers, three students and the alleged attacker, who was identified as a 15-year-old secondary school student. Authorities also reported that 15 people were injured in the attack, two of whom remain in critical condition.
According to police, the suspect fatally shot his grandparents before travelling to the school, where the attack unfolded. The motive for the shooting has not yet been established, and the investigation remains ongoing.
Local media, including Thai PBS, initially reported that the gunman was a 15-year-old student, a detail that was later confirmed by Thai police. Authorities said the suspect was inside the school’s computer room during the attack. The school was identified by local media as Debsirin Nonthaburi School, located approximately 15 kilometres north-west of the Thai capital.
Eyewitnesses described scenes of panic as gunfire erupted across the campus. An 18-year-old student told Reuters that he initially mistook the sounds for firecrackers or someone striking an object.
“At first I didn’t think it was a gun,” the student said. “There were many shots: bang, bang, bang. Then it went quiet. After that, it started again.”
Emergency responders arrived while the shooting was still in progress. Kiatikhun Verapongpradith, a 47-year-old paramedic who attended the scene, described treating students suffering gunshot wounds to their backs, chests and arms while searching the school building for casualties.
The emergency team discovered one teacher dead on an upper floor of the school. In another room, they found a female teacher with gunshot wounds to her chest and arm. Medical personnel attempted to save her life before transporting her to hospital.
“We performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation for about 30 minutes and rushed her to hospital because we could not stabilise her heart rhythm, but we did everything we could,” Verapongpradith said.
Images from the scene showed students evacuating the school in their socks as emergency services secured the area and treated the wounded. Police have not disclosed further details about the sequence of events or how the suspect died.
The school is regarded as one of Thailand’s leading public educational institutions, serving students aged between 12 and 18. It belongs to one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious public school networks, attended over the years by senior political figures and other prominent individuals.
The shooting has once again drawn attention to gun violence in Thailand, where firearms are relatively widespread. The country has a high rate of gun ownership, with weapons readily accessible to members of the military and police, while civilian firearm regulations have been described as outdated and comparatively permissive.
The latest attack follows another fatal shooting at a school in Hat Yai, southern Thailand, in February. In that incident, a school principal was killed after a gunman entered the campus, opened fire and took teachers and students hostage before eventually releasing them.
Authorities have not announced any arrests beyond identifying the deceased suspect, and investigations into the circumstances surrounding both the killings of the suspect’s grandparents and the school shooting are continuing.
