Bangkok, Oct 6 (EFE).– An ex-police officer killed 34 people with a rifle this Thursday, including 22 children, in a kindergarten in the town of Uthai Sawan, in northeastern Thailandreported the Police.
The last statement from the Police on the event that occurred around noon, local time, also reported 15 wounded, eight of them in serious condition.
The 34-year-old ex-police officer who had been removed from the body for drug possession committed suicide after the attack, the Police detailed on their Facebook account.
“We confirm that the criminal shot himself and has died,” the statement said, while the rescue services detailed that before taking his own life he also killed his wife and son.
The suspected assailant fired an automatic rifle at those present at a nursery school located in Nongbua Lamphu province, which generally caters for children between the ages of 2 and 5, before fleeing in a van.
The images provided by the Police show dozens of bodies scattered throughout different rooms.
Most of the injured were transferred to Nong Bua Lamphu hospital, which has “urgently” requested that citizens donate blood of all types, according to local media.
Relatives of the victims went to the compound that the police cordoned off, and many of them succumbed to despair, as can be seen in images and videos circulating on social networks.
The country’s prime minister, Prayut Chan-ocha, has expressed his condolences to the families.
Other mass shootings in Thailand
Mass shootings in Thailand are rare, but in 2020 a soldier killed at least 29 people and wounded 58 in a rampage that spanned multiple locations, including a military camp and a large shopping mall in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima.
Last month, a police officer shot dead two colleagues and wounded another at the Army Training Command War College in Bangkok.
