BANGKOK — Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has vowed to introduce tougher gun control laws after a 14-year-old carried out a shooting that left eight people dead and 22 injured at a school on the outskirts of Bangkok.
Fourteen people remained hospitalized following Friday’s attack, seven of them in critical condition.
Authorities said the teenager first shot and killed his 73-year-old grandfather and 74-year-old grandmother at their home before taking a school bus to Debsirin School in Nonthaburi, where he was a student.
He later opened fire inside the school, killing five teachers before shooting himself. Thai media subsequently reported that a student had died from injuries sustained in the attack, bringing the number of victims killed to eight.
Following the shooting, Anutin said his government would introduce legislation restricting the carrying of firearms in public, with only government officials performing official duties permitted to carry guns.
The prime minister described the attack as a tragedy that “shouldn’t have happened” and said preliminary evidence suggested it had been carefully planned.
Police Col. Thadsakorn Konthong said the firearm and ammunition used in the shooting belonged to the teenager’s grandfather. Investigators found indications that the gun had been searched for in the grandfather’s bedroom before the attack.
Media reports said the weapon was legally registered and covered by a permit.
Police said the teenager killed his grandparents at around 5 a.m. before boarding a school bus with the firearm and dozens of rounds of ammunition.
He attended his first class at 8:30 a.m. and another at 9:20 a.m. About half an hour into the second class, authorities said, he drew the weapon and began shooting.
Investigators believe he initially targeted teachers on the sixth floor, killing three. He then encountered the school’s deputy director and the director’s secretary on a staircase and fatally shot both.
Police responding to the attack found the teenager at around 10:40 a.m. after he had shot himself.
National police chief Gen. Kittiratt Phanphet said forensic evidence indicated the teenager fired with considerable accuracy, with several shots striking vital areas.
Investigators have searched the teenager’s electronic devices and, according to local media, found several videos related to school shootings in the United States.
Family members described him as quiet and well behaved, with no apparent indication that he was preparing an attack.
The shooting has renewed scrutiny of firearm ownership in Thailand, which has one of Southeast Asia’s highest rates of civilian gun ownership. An estimated 10.3 million firearms are in civilian hands, around 4 million of them believed to be illegally held.
Thailand already imposes penalties of up to 10 years in prison for illegal firearm possession, but enforcement has remained a challenge.
Anutin previously introduced gun-control measures while serving as interior minister, including a temporary halt to the issuance of new gun licenses and restrictions on firearm imports.
Debsirin School, founded in Bangkok in 1885, is one of Thailand’s prominent secondary schools and has produced numerous political figures, diplomats and athletes.
Source: Saudi Gazette