At least 36 people have been killed in a mass shooting by a fired police officer at a children’s daycare center in Thailand.
The victims included 24 children – some as young as two – as well as adults, authorities said.
A manhunt was first launched to catch the attacker, named by police Panya Khamrap, 34, who fled the scene shooting at bystanders and driving his vehicle towards them.
Officials later said the gunman committed suicide, after shooting his wife and child.
It is the deadliest mass shooting in the country’s history.
At least a dozen other people were injured in the attack, which happened in the town of Uthai Sawan in the northeastern province of Nong Bua Lamphu.
The shooter was armed with a handgun, shotgun and knife and opened fire on the center after forcing his way in around lunchtime.
Brandishing a knife, he then forced his way into a locked room where children were sleeping, district official Jidapa Boonsom said to continue his attack.
There were about 30 children inside the entire building at the time, she said.
The gunman first shot four or five members of staff, including an eight-month-pregnant teacher, before going after the sleeping youngsters.
“At first people thought it was fireworks,” she said.
Videos posted to social media showed emergency services at the scene and sheets covering what appeared to be the bodies of children at the centre.
Distraught family members could be heard crying outside the building as officials including police and paramedics could be seen.
A witness told Thai television Kom Chad Leuk that they had locked the door to the building when they saw the suspect approaching with a handgun, but he fired through it.
The woman said a teacher was killed while holding “a child in his arms”.
“I didn’t think he would kill children, but he shot at the door and shot through,” she said.
The shooter was fired from the police last year for failing a drug test, district police official Chakkraphat Wichitvaidya told reporters.
He was facing trial and appeared in court on a drug charge hours before the rampage, and appeared agitated upon arriving at the children’s center.
The suspect was last seen driving a white van with Bangkok license plates.
The Daily News reported that the attacker returned home where he killed his wife and child, before killing himself.
Nineteen boys, three girls and two adults were killed in the center – and more outside. This includes the shooter, his wife and son, police said.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha described the attack as a shocking incident and alerted all agencies to take action.
The country’s worst mass shooting involved a disgruntled soldier who opened fire in and around a shopping mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima in 2020, killing 29 people.
