Thirty-four people, including twenty-two children, died after a mass shooting at a preschool center. A man armed with a shotgun, handgun, and knife opened fire in the daycare center located in the town of Uthai Sawan in the northeastern province of Nong Bua Lamphu in Thailand.
The suspect, Panya Khamrab, 34, entered the daycare today at 12:30 PM (1:30 AM EST), forcing his way into a locked room during nap time and began shooting. Local officials estimate that there were 30 children at the daycare center at the time of the tragedy. A couple of the shooting victims were only two years old.
Jidapa Boonsom, a district official, told Reuters that the gunmen first targeted the center staff, shooting four or five, including an eight-month pregnant teacher. She also shared that, at first, workers at the daycare center believed that the gunshots were nothing more than fireworks.
Kamran fled from the scene driving erratically in a white pickup truck. A witness, Paweena Purichan, 31, who saw him leave the scene, said he was driving erratically. “He intended to crash into others on the road. The attacker rammed a motorbike, and two people were injured. I sped off to get away from him,” she said. He returned to his house, where he killed his wife and child and then turned the gun on himself.
Khamrab, a former police officer, was discharged last year for drug use. He was in court earlier in the day to attend a hearing on his involvement in a drug case. It is suspected that he went to the daycare center to look for his child, who was not there and that the stress of the court case and inability to find his son set him off on the shooting rampage.
Mass shootings are not common in Thailand because of stringent gun laws. Carrying a gun unlawfully can bring a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
