A 34-year-old former police officer has killed over 35 people in a knife and gun attack at a childcare centre in North-East Thailand.
The suspect identified as Panya Khamrap also shot dead multiple adults including an eight-month-pregnant woman before killing himself and his family.
Children and adults are among the casualties at the nursery and police say the attacker mostly stabbed his victims before fleeing the scene.
Dozens of blood-soaked bodies were scattered across the floor and grounds of the nursery and lined the roads and buildings outside.
According to sources, the attacker was sacked in June after he failed a drug test and he appeared in court today prior to the shootings.
Headteacher Nanticha Panchum said the attacker’s son attended the centre but had not been there for a month.
“The shooter came in around lunchtime and shot four or five officials at the childcare centre first. One of them was a teacher who was eight months pregnant. At first, people thought it was fireworks but then the man forced entry to a locked room where children were sleeping.
After inspecting the crime scene, we found that the perpetrator tried to break in and he mainly used a knife to commit the crime by killing a number of small children. Then he got out and started killing anyone he met along the way with a gun or a knife until he got home. We surrounded the house and then found that he committed suicide in his home”, a local official revealed.
At least 23 children were among the dead in the mass killing in the town of Utthai Sawan. Some victims aged as young as two were attacked as they slept.
Police say Kamrab returned home, killing his wife and son before taking his own life.
The nursery attack comes less than a month after an army officer shot dead two of his colleagues at a base in Bangkok.
