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At least 22 people injured in school shooting, health ministry says
Natasha May
Natasha May is reporting from Nonthaburi on the outskirts of Thailand’s capital, Bangkok
There are 22 people injured as of 1.30pm local time being treated at six local hospitals, according to a statement released by Thailand’s ministry for health.
Nine are in a critical condition (the most severe red category), four require urgent care (yellow category) and another nine have non-severe injuries (green category).
Seven mental health crisis assessment and treatment teams have also been deployed to provide psychological support to the affected community.
Dr Somruek Juengsaman, the permanent secretary for public health, said mental health care is being triaged according to proximity to the event, with the highest priority group being the injured and the relatives of the deceased.
Key events
Journalists from the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency have been speaking to people outside the Debsirin School on the outskirts of Bangkok following the deadly shooting.
Purin Khumchoo, 17, said he was among the students who had nearly been shot. “He was my junior, but I had a feeling that he was a troubled kid. My group of friends who knew him said he was interested in the FBI and guns, and that he was bullied by many other students,” Purin told AFP.
“When I saw him aiming the gun at me, I thought he looked very professional, as if he had been trained for a long time.”
There have been conflicting casualty numbers given by officials this morning.
Thailand’s deputy interior minister Polapee Suwunchwee told reporters at the scene that five teachers were killed in the school shooting.
We are still awaiting further information on this as in a statement issued earlier the national police said three teachers and three students were killed.
It has been confirmed by authorities that the suspected shooter killed his grandparents at home before going to the Debsirin School to carry out the rest of the shootings.
The suspected shooter was a 14-year-old student at the school and killed himself following the attack, according to reports.
Here are some of the latest images being sent to us from the scene following the deadly school shooting in the Bang Kruai district of Thailand’s Nonthaburi province:
School shooting serves as 'wake-up call to Thai society', opposition leader says
The leader of the People’s Party, Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, has said that while the motive for the school shooting remains unclear it serves “as another wake-up call to Thai society”.
“We must collectively review and implement a systematic approach to gun control measures, coupled with enhanced security measures in educational institutions to prevent similar incidents from recurring in the future,” the opposition leader wrote in a post on Facebook.
Ruengpanyawut expressed his “deepest condolences” to those who were killed in today’s school shooting and to those who were injured.
Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the region, with about 10 million firearms estimated to be in circulation – one for every seven inhabitants.
Past promises of gun law reforms have not prevented deadly shootings in Thailand. In February, a 17-year-old stole a gun from police and opened fire at a public high school in southern Thailand, killing one person.
In 2022, an ex-policeman armed with a gun and a knife stormed into a nursery in the country’s north and killed 24 children and 12 adults, one of Thailand’s deadliest massacres.
Thailand’s health minister, Pattana Promphat, said in an update that 22 people were injured in the school shooting, with nine reported to be in critical condition.
Some were injured from causes such as falls, and it wasn’t clear how many were shot.
Natasha May
The shooter was a student who remained inside the school after reports of the attack first emerged, Arsit Sampantharat, the permanent secretary for the interior ministry, told news station PPTV.
A witness told reporters that students hid inside a classroom while they heard gunshots from another building before police officers knocked on the door and cleared a way for them to leave the building.
In the 2025 academic year, the Debsirin School had an enrolment of about 3,100 students and 147 teachers, according to district authorities.
The school is one of a network of Debsirin secondary schools, which were founded by the Thai royal family. Alumni include prime ministers, scholars and writers.
Suspect in Thailand school shooting killed several people, police say
The suspect in a school shooting in the Bang Kruai district of Nonthaburi province in Thailand killed eight people in total on Friday, police said.
First he shot his grandparents dead, using his grandfather’s handgun, then went to his school, the Debsirin Nonthaburi School on Bangkok’s outskirts, and killed three teachers and three students, according to national police.
Lt. Col. Dechrapee Kongdee, the Nonthaburi provincial police commander, confirmed that the suspected gunman had taken his own life.
The suspected gunman, who was a student, fired 26 rounds and another 34 rounds of ammunition were found at the scene, police said in a statement.
The suspect was in the ninth grade (typically about 14 years old), Kongdee told the BBC.
It is the second school shooting in Thailand this year after a teacher died and a student was injured in the south of the country in February.
