Thailand school shooting: Gunman, 18, opens fire at Hat Yai school; ‘shot and arrested,’ say cops

At least three persons were injured after an unknown man wielding gun entered a school in southern Thailand and started shooting indiscriminately, Reuters reported. The gunman had also taken a number of teachers and students as hostages, police official was quoted as saying.

No deaths were reported in the Thailand school shooting.

The gunman who entered the school and shot indiscriminately has been detained and all hostages have been freed, police said, the news agency reported. The police and province authorities said that the gunman was shot and then arrested.

"Police shot the suspect in the Hat Yai shooting," Thailand's Central Investigation Bureau said in a statement.

It was earlier reported that the gunman had been killed, but the authorities later clarified that he had been “shot and arrested.”

How Thailand school shooting unfolded

The incident was reported on February 11 when an 18-year-old man entered the Patongprathankiriwat School. The school is located in Songkhla province's Hat Yai district in southern Thailand.

The man entered the school in “an agitated state while carrying a gun”, the provincial administration said. Shortly after he entered, "about two to three gunshots were heard", the provincial government said.

Deputy Superintendent Wichian Soboon later informed the media that the man was arrested after some time.

At least three people were injured in the incident, a second police official said.

Videos on the social media showed multiple people running to escape the school premises. According to some posts, the principal of the school was also hurt in the school shooting.

In a photograph released by police, the suspect was seen lying barefoot on the ground, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, as armed officers restrain him. Also Read | Who is Lt Gen Vladimir Alexeyev? Top Russian intelligence official shot multiple times in Moscow apartment building

Another video on the social media, which could not independently be verified by Mint, showed students running inside the school as the sound of gunfire ring loud in the background. It cannot be confirmed whether a student or a teacher recorded the video.

In another, also not immediately verifiable, students run down stairs at the school as police, some wearing helmets and black bullet-proof vests and carrying rifles, shouted: “Go home kids, it's safe,” Reuters reported.

Gun violence and ownership are not uncommon in Thailand, where a former police officer killed 36 people, including 22 children, in a gun-and-knife attack at a nursery in the country's east in 2022.