Thailand attack: 22 children among 34 killed in nursery mass shooting

Thirty-four people have been killed, including 22 children, in a mass shooting at a preschool centre in a north-eastern province of Thailand, police have said.

The attacker was a former policeman who killed his wife and child before shooting himself dead.

About 30 children were at the centre when the gunman entered the building at 12.30pm (5.30am UK time), during the children’s nap time, police and local officials said. Some of the victims were as young as two.

Jidapa Boonsom, a district official, told Reuters that the attacker first shot four or five members of staff, including a teacher who was eight months pregnant. “At first people thought it was fireworks,” she added.

Videos posted on social media showed sheets covering what appeared to be the bodies of children lying in pools of blood at the centre in the town of Uthai Sawan in the north-eastern province of Nong Bua Lamphu.

Local police said the attacker was armed with a shotgun, a pistol and a knife, and that he fled the scene in a vehicle. The Daily News newspaper reported that after fleeing the attacker returned to his home and killed himself along with his wife and child.

Chakkraphat Wichitvaidya, superintendent of Na Klang police station, told Thai Rath TV that the gunman had been discharged from the police force last year.

The prime minister, Prayuth Chanocha, said in a statement on Facebook that he offered his deepest condolences to the families and those injured. “I ordered the police chief to immediately go to the area and all the related agencies help all those affected urgently,” he said.

The rate of gun ownership in Thailand is high compared with some other countries in the region, but official figures do not include huge numbers of illegal weapons, many of which have been brought in across porous borders over the years from strife-torn neighbours.

Mass shootings in Thailand are rare, but in 2020 a soldier angry over a property deal killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations.