A former police officer opened fire at a child-care center in northeastern Thailand, used a knife to stab people and continued shooting on the streets as he drove off, leaving at least 36 dead, including 24 children, police said.
The gunman, whom police identified as 34-year-old Panya Kamrab, later killed himself and his wife and child, police said.
Kamrab was discharged from the police force in June after being arrested for possessing methamphetamine, police said. He was scheduled to appear for a court hearing Friday in connection with the drug-possession charge, the country’s national police chief, Gen. Damrongsak Kittiprapat, said at a news conference.
A first responder praying at the site of Thursday’s attack at a child-care center in Thailand.
Photo: Mungkorn Sriboonreung Rescue Group/AP
Arriving at the child-care center during the early afternoon Thursday, Kamrab began shooting with a 9mm gun and stabbed people, according to police. At least 24 people were killed in the rampage at the center. Kamrab then drove home, on his way shooting people on the street, police said. Security forces later found Kamrab, his wife and son dead at their home.
The gun was Kamrab’s personal firearm and had been bought legally, the police chief said.
The mother of a victim the day after the rampage in Thailand that began at a child-care center.
Photo: Manan Vatsyayana/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Mass shootings are uncommon in Thailand. Thursday’s attack occurred in the Nong Bua Lamphu province in the country’s northeast, police said. It surpasses the toll of the last major shooting of this scale in the country in 2020, when a soldier killed at least 29 people and holed himself up in a shopping mall before being shot dead by security forces.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan -ocha in a Facebook post expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and said he has ordered all relevant government agencies to help people affected by the attack. He is scheduled to travel to the area Friday.
Write to Niharika Mandhana at niharika.mandhana@wsj.com
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Appeared in the October 7, 2022, print edition as ‘Ex-Police Officer Kills at Least 36, Including 24 Children, in Thai Attack.’