An ex-policeman has killed at least 34 people mostly children, in a gun and knife attack at a pre-school daycare centre in north-east Thailand.
The attacker Police named as Panya Kamrab,aged 34 was a police lieutenant colonel before he was dismissed last year for drug use.
Police say he then killed himself and his family after a manhunt following the attack in Nong Bua Lamphu province.
A teacher who survived the attack told Thailand’s Thairath TV the gunman used to drop off his child at the nursery and had seemed polite. A motive for the attack remains unclear.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha described the shooting as “a shocking event”.
Mass shootings in Thailand are rare although gun ownership rates are relatively high for the region. Illegal weapons are also common in the south-east Asian country, according to the Reuters news agency.
The nursery attack comes less than a month after an army officer shot dead two of his colleagues at a base in Bangkok.
BBC