HAT YAI, Thailand (AP) — A hostage situation and a shooting were reported Wednesday inside a school in southern Thailand, authorities said. The situation was resolved after a few hours, with the gunman apprehended, police said.
The police’s Central Investigation Bureau said that an armed man held some students and teachers hostage, and at least one student was injured. They reported that the incident was under control about two hours later, though they didn’t immediately release further details. Thai media reported several people being injured, though that wasn’t officially confirmed.
The gunman appeared to be angry as he went into Patongprathankiriwat School in Songkhla province in late afternoon shortly after the classes were dismissed, and a few gunshots were heard afterward, according to the provincial Public Relations Department.
The motive of the gunman wasn’t immediately known.
Gun violence isn’t uncommon in Thailand, which has one of the highest rates of gun ownership and gun-related deaths in Asia, though mass shootings are rare.
Data collected in 2017 by the groups Small Arms Survey and GunPolicy.org. found that there were about 10.3 guns per 100 people in Thailand, compared with less than one per 100 in neighboring Malaysia. If illegal guns are added to the total, Thailand’s rate is 15.1.
In October 2022, a police sergeant who was fired from his job killed 36 people, including two dozen toddlers, at a day care center in the small northeastern town of Uthai Sawan. The shocking gun and knife attack spurred calls for tighter gun controls, though there have been no major reforms.
In February 2020, a disgruntled Thai soldier angry over a financial dispute with his commanding officer went on a shooting rampage in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, killing 29 people and wounding dozens of others before police shot him dead after an overnight siege at a major shopping mall.
