[Image credit: DW]

A former policeman killed thirty-four individuals as well as twenty-two kids in a gun rampage at a daycare center in eastern Thailand on Thursday, later shooting dead his married woman and kid at their home before turning his weapon on himself, police said.

Police know the assaulter as a former member of the force who was fired from his post last year over drug allegations. He was facing trial on a drugs charge and had been in court within the hours before the shooting, police said. District police official Chakkraphat Wichitvaidya cited witnesses as saying the gunman was conjointly seen wielding a knife in the attack within the city of Uthai Sawan, five hundred kilometers (310 miles) northeast of Bangkok in the province of Nong Bua Lamphu.

About thirty kids were at the center when the gunman arrived, fewer than usual, as significant rain had kept many folks away, district official Jidapa Boonsom, who was working in a near workplace at the time, told Reuters.


“The shooter came in around mealtime and shot four or 5 officers at the childcare center first,” aforesaid Jidapa, adding that among them was an instructor who was eight months pregnant. At first, people thought the shots were fireworks, she said.

“It’s very shocking. we were afraid and ran to cover once we knew it had been shot. such a lot of children got killed, I’ve never seen something like it.” The gunman. forced his method into a locked room wherever children were sleeping, Jidapa aforesaid. She said she thought he killed children there with a knife.


Videos shared on social media showed sheets covering what appeared to be the bodies of kids lying in pools of blood. Reuters couldn't instantly affirm the footage.

Police spokesperson Paisan Luesomboon told broadcaster Thai PBS the gunman had been at a court hearing in connection with a drug case earlier on Thursday and had gone to the childcare center to search out his child, however, the kid wasn't there.

“He was already stressed and when he couldn’t find his child he was additional stressed and began shooting,” Paisan said, adding that he had then driven home and killed his wife and child there before taking his own life.


Gun laws are strict in Thailand, wherever possession of an illegal gun carries a jail sentence of up to ten years, but possession is high compared with few other countries within the region.

Illegal weapons, several brought in from strife-torn neighboring countries, are common.

However, mass shootings are rare. In 2020, a soldier angry over a property deal gone bitter killed a minimum of twenty-nine individuals and wounded fifty-seven in a rampage that spanned four locations.