A gunman has been arrested in Thailand after taking students and teachers hostage at a school
Hat Yai, Thailand — A hostage-taking and shooting were reported Wednesday inside a school in southern Thailand, authorities said. The situation was resolved after a few hours, and the gunman was arrested, police said.
The police’s Central Bureau of Investigation said an armed man took some students and teachers hostage, and at least one student was injured. They reported that the incident was under control after about two hours, although they did not immediately release further details. Thai media reported that several people were injured, but this has not been officially confirmed.
The gunman appeared angry when he went to Patongprathankerwat School in Songkhla province in the late afternoon shortly after classes ended, and gunshots were heard afterward, according to the province’s public relations department.
The gunman’s motives were not immediately known.
Gun violence is common in Thailand, which has one of the highest rates of gun possession and gun-related deaths in Asia, although mass shootings are rare.
The data was collected in 2017 by Small Arms Survey groups and GunPolicy.org. It found there were about 10.3 guns for every 100 people in Thailand, compared to less than one for every 100 in neighboring Malaysia. If illegal weapons are added to the total, the rate in Thailand is 15.1.
In October 2022, a police sergeant who had been fired from his job killed 36 people, including 24 young children, at a day care center in the small northeastern town of Uthai Sawan. The horrific attack with firearms and knives sparked calls for tighter gun control, although there have been no major reforms.
In February 2020, a disgruntled Thai soldier angry over a financial dispute with his commander went on a shooting rampage in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, killing 29 people and wounding dozens more before he was shot dead by police after an overnight siege at a major shopping mall.
