Thailand preschool massacre: Gunman kills at least 37 including at least 23 children

WARNING: DISTRESSING DETAILS

At least 37 people are dead, including at least 23 children, after a cold-blooded killer broke into a preschool in Thailand and killed the children as they slept.

Former police officer Panya Khamrap, 34, was armed with a shotgun, a pistol and a meat cleaver when he burst into the nursery 480km northeast of Bangkok and shot dead adults including an eight-months pregnant woman.

He then broke into a locked room and stabbed the sleeping children to death. Some were as young as 2.

The suspect, Panya Kamrap, is a former police officer.

According to reports, Khamrap - who had been sacked from the police over drug allegations and was due in court on the morning of the attack - arrived at the nursery and became agitated after realising his child was not there.

A witness said staff at the daycare locked the door when they saw the assailant approaching with a gun, but he shot his way in.

"The teacher who died, she had a child in her arms," the witness, whose name wasn't given, told Thailand's Kom Chad Luek television. "I didn't think he would kill children, but he shot at the door and shot right through it."

The shooter fled in a white Toyota pick-up truck, attacking others as he left, before reportedly killing his wife and child at their home, which he set on fire. Another three adults were found dead inside the home.

In this mug shot released by the Thailand Criminal Investigations Bureau, CIB, a suspected assailant is shown in the attack in the town of Nong Bua Lamphu. Photo / AP

Media reports suggest the gunman then shot and killed himself.

In total, at least 37 people have been killed, including the shooter. Twenty-four bodies, including 19 boys, three girls and two adults, were found at the daycare centre. It is the deadliest mass killing in Thailand's history.

At least 12 other people were injured.

Photos and videos posted online of the daycare showed the floor of one room was smeared with blood and sleeping mats scattered about. Alphabet pictures and other colourful decorations adorned the walls.

In videos from the scene, frantic family members could be heard weeping outside the building. Ambulances stood by as police and medical workers walked around.

Local reports suggested that Khamrap was fired from the police for failing a drugs test and that he faced court before the attack.

A distraught woman is led away from the site of an attack at a daycare centre in Nongbua Lamphu, north eastern Thailand. Photo / AP

Police spokesperson Paisan Luesomboon told broadcaster ThaiPBS that Khamrap went to the childcare centre to find his child, who was not there.

"He was already stressed and when he couldn't find his child he was more stressed and started shooting," Paisan said.

Khamrap was last seen driving a white-four door Toyota pick-up truck with Bangkok registration plates, before he was found dead.

'Thought it was fireworks'

A teacher at the daycare who survived the attack said Khamrap pointed the gun at her head, but she was able to climb over a wall to escape.

"I knew it was a gun because I heard multiple gunshots, and then I saw him put in the bullets and point the gun at me.

"I called the teacher, and the teacher was hugging the child. He kicked the mirror and I climbed the walls and asked for help.

"He was inside the child centre for a long time. He used a knife and cut all the kids' heads. He was carrying a small gun.

People gather outside the site of an attack at a daycare centre in the town of Nongbua Lamphu, north eastern Thailand. Photo / AP

"I didn't know he was going to kill the kids. I thought he was [going to] come out but he stayed inside a long time. He used a knife and stabbed all the kids.

"He also stabbed a pregnant teacher. Only [a] few months till she gives birth. He stabbed my staff. That's all I know."

"The shooter came in around lunchtime and shot four or five officials at the childcare centre first," local official Jidapa Boonsom told Reuters. "At first people thought it was fireworks," she said.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha described the shooting as "a shocking event".

Shooter's drug issues

Khamrap was sacked from the police in January this year after being caught with pills containing meth and caffeine, reports said.

He had previously been warned for drug use.

He had served as a police officer for 10 years.

Colleagues claimed he had mood swings and was not popular at work.

Khamrap was said to have pulled a pistol on a bank manager who found him asleep, parked outside his bank when he was supposed to be guarding it, The Nation Thailand reported.

He was also said to have argued with his wife after he supposedly had an affair, and was reported to have argued with a neighbour after having raucous house parties.

Worst killing in Thai history

Mass murders in Thailand are extremely rare.

The last time so many people were killed in a single incident was in 2021 when a soldier killed 21 people and injured dozens more in Nakhon Ratchasima.

In the past year, there have been at least two other cases of shooting murders by serving soldiers, according to the Bangkok Post.

And in 2020, in one of the kingdom's deadliest incidents in recent years, a soldier gunned down 29 people in a 17-hour rampage and wounded scores more before he was shot dead by commandos.

That mass shooting was linked to a debt dispute between gunman Sergeant-Major Jakrapanth Thomma and a senior officer, and the military top brass were at pains to portray the killer as a rogue soldier.

Firearm-related deaths in Thailand are much lower than in countries like the United States and Brazil, but higher than in countries like Japan and Singapore that have strict gun control laws. The rate of firearms-related deaths in 2019 was about 4 per 100,000, compared with about 11 per 100,000 in the US and nearly 23 per 100,000 in Brazil.

Last month, a clerk shot co-workers at Thailand's Army War College in Bangkok, killing two and wounding another before he was arrested. - news.com , AP, and agencies