BANGKOK (AP) — At least seven people were shot dead on Friday by a 14-year-old student in Nonthaburi province, a northern suburb of the Thai capital Bangkok. The boy killed five members of the staff at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School and the two grandparents with whom he lived, the authorities said.
Thailand has among the highest rates of gun ownership in Asia, though shootings involving indiscriminate killings are not common. Its deadliest recent mass killing of civilians took place in a village in the country’s northeast in 2022, when a police sergeant who had lost his job used guns and knives to kill 37 people, including two dozen toddlers at a daycare center.
These are some recent cases not related to political violence.
— February 11, 2026: One person was killed and two others wounded when a 17-year-old boy stole a gun from police and opened fire at a public high school in southern Thailand’s Hat Yai province. He was arrested after a short standoff.
— July 28, 2025: A gunman shot and killed five people at a popular fresh food market in Bangkok before killing himself. Police said the attack involved a personal grudge.
— Oct. 3, 2023: A 14-year-boy opened fire with a handgun inside a major shopping mall in Bangkok, killing two people before being apprehended. Police said his weapon was originally manufactured to shoot blanks but was modified to fire live ammunition.
— March 23, 2023: Police commandos in Phetchaburi province, about 170 kilometers (105 miles) southwest of Bangkok, killed a man to end a 14-hour standoff after he had shot to death three people.
— Oct. 6, 2022: A police sergeant who had lost his job used guns and knives to kill 37 people, including two dozen toddlers at a daycare center in the northeastern province of Nong Bua Lamphu. After the attack at the daycare center, the assailant returned home and killed his wife and stepson before taking his own life.
— Feb. 8, 2020: A soldier angry about a land dispute went on a 16-hour shooting rampage in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, killing at least 29 people and wounding dozens more. Police and military personnel shot him dead after an overnight siege.
— Jan. 9, 2020: A masked gunman shot dead three people, including a 2-year-old, during a robbery of a gold shop in a shopping mall in central Thailand’s Lopburi province. A school headmaster was arrested less than two weeks later and was sentenced to death after pleading guilty to murder charges.
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