A teenage student killed his grandparents before fatally shooting six people at a secondary school near Bangkok on Friday, leaving eight dead in one of Thailand's deadliest school attacks in recent years, police said.
According to Thailand's national police, the attacker first shot dead his grandparents using his grandfather's handgun before heading to Debsirin Nonthaburi School in neighbouring Nonthaburi province.
At the school, he killed three teachers and three students before dying during the incident. Police have not confirmed whether the suspect was shot by officers or died by suicide.
Authorities said 23 people were injured, most while fleeing the attack rather than from gunfire.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul described the shooting as "a terrible incident" that "should never have happened."
Witnesses recount panic
Students described scenes of terror as gunfire echoed through the school.
"I was afraid that I would die," one student told AFP, saying she heard repeated gunshots from the floor above while sheltering inside the building.
Another student described the suspect as a "troubled kid" who had an interest in guns and had reportedly been bullied by classmates.
Education Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong said mental health teams had been deployed to support students and staff, while promising stronger security measures at schools.
Renewed focus on gun violence
Police are investigating how the teenager obtained the handgun used in the attack.
Thailand has one of Southeast Asia's highest rates of civilian gun ownership, with an estimated 10 million firearms in circulation.
The shooting is the latest in a series of deadly gun attacks despite repeated government pledges to tighten firearm controls, including a 2022 nursery massacre that killed 36 people, most of them children.
