At least seven people were k!lled on Friday, August 7, when a student opened fire at a school in Thailand before turning the gun on himself, a national police official said.
Photos shared by emergency workers show students streaming out of the Debsirin Nonthaburi School, on the northwestern outskirts of Bangkok, as the wounded were loaded on to ambulances and teachers hugged each other and cried.
One person is seen lying down on a stretcher outside an ambulance, while another is attended to by a medic.
One 18-year-old student told Reuters he initially thought the gunshots were firecrackers going off or someone banging an object.
I didn’t think it was a gun at first,” he said. “There were many shots: bang bang bang. Then it went quiet. Then it started again.”
Lt. Col. Trirong Phophan, a spokesman for the National Police, told Reuters the suspected shooter was among the seven people k!lled. Fifteen people were injured, he added.
Education Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong told Reuters that both teachers and students were among those reported de@d.
Police identified the perpetrator as a student.
Emergency worker Kiatikhun Verapongpradith, 47, described arriving as the shooting was ongoing and his team treated students with injuries in the back, chest and arms.
They found a male teacher lying de@d on an upper floor of the school, and in another room they found a female teacher with wounds in her chest and arm.
“We gave CPR for about 30 minutes and rushed her to the hospital as we could not get her heart rate up, but we tried our best,” he said.
Deputy Education Minister Akkharanan Kannakittinan said in a statement he was coordinating to provide assistance.
It is the second school shooting in Thailand this year after a teacher di£d and a student was injured in the south of the country in February.