Teen gunman who fired shots in Thai school detained after wounding teacher, girl
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An 18-year-old man entered the Patongprathankiriwat School in Songkhla Province’s Hat Yai on Feb 11 with a gun.
PHOTO: THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
BANGKOK - A gunman who used a firearm stolen from a police officer to wound a teacher and a girl at a school in southern Thailand’s Hat Yai district on Feb 11 has been detained, authorities said.
The 17-year-old suspect entered Patongprathankiriwat School in Songkhla Province’s Hat Yai earlier in the day, appearing agitated, the provincial government said in a statement.
The suspect has a sister at the school, police commander Teerasak Chaiyotha said, but a motive has yet to be determined.
A female teacher was critically injured and had undergone surgery and was now in an intensive care unit, while a teen girl was shot in the waist and was now in stable condition, he added.
In a photograph shared by police, the suspect, barefoot and dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, is seen held down on the ground by armed officers.
He had earlier attacked a police officer and stolen his firearm, provincial governor Ratthasart Chidchoo said, adding that the suspect had a history of substance abuse and was discharged from a psychiatric hospital in December.
In a video shared by a witness, which could not immediately be verified by Reuters, armed police officers storm the three-storied school as the sound of gunfire rings out.
In another, also not immediately verifiable, students run down stairs at the school as the police, some wearing helmets and black bullet-proof vests and carrying rifles, shouted: “Go home kids, it’s safe.”
Gun ownership is not uncommon in Thailand, where a former police officer killed 36 people, including 22 children, in a gun-and-knife attack at a nursery
