A Thai soldier armed with military firearms rampaged through a bustling shopping mall and an army camp, killing 29 people before he himself was killed after a 17-hour standoff with security forces, Thai officials said, in a rare mass shooting that has shaken the country.
The country is in complete denial about the incident that took place at the Terminal 21 mall.The alleged shooter was under Thailand’s 23rd infantry regiment, which oversees Surathampitak camp.JakrapanthThomma, 32, was said to be angry over a land deal as he went on the rampage in the complex he fled to in a stolen Humvee after shooting his commanding officer, officials said.
The deceased has been identified as the commanding officer Col. AnantharotKrasae, 48, with whom the alleged gunman reportedly had a conflict.
Thai security forces shot and killed the rogue soldier on after a 16-hour standoff at the Terminal 21 shopping Centre in the city of NakhonRatchasima, a hub for Thailand’s relatively poorer rural northeastern region.
Thomma reportedly worked at an army base close to NakhonRatchasima, about 250km (155 miles) from the capital, Bangkok. Thai media said the suspect was a sharpshooter and gun enthusiast who often posed with weapons on social media.
After live-streaming part of the shooting on Facebook, the gunman holed up in the mall with several hostages, as police secured the area in the early-morning darkness.
The sound of gunfire emanated from the building before 3 a.m., and ambulances rushed in and out of the mall compound, according to live broadcasts from the scene. Mall workers and shoppers crawled out from fire exits and glass entrances, staying low to avoid bullets, escaping in small groups throughout the morning.
The attack is at least the second mall shooting in Thailand this year. On Jan. 9, a masked gunman fatally shot three people, including a 2-year-old boy, while he robbed a jewelry store in the city of Lopburi. A suspect was arrested, reportedly confessed and said that he had not meant to shoot anyone.
“He pointed a gun at a soldier in the camp and stole firearms from him,” Prayut Chan-ocha, Thailand’s prime minister, said at a news conference on Sunday. “Then, he used that stolen weapon to kill another guard at the ammunition storage area.”
NakhonRatchasima, also known as Korat, is about 3 1 / 2 hours by car from Bangkok. Arriving at the Terminal 21 mall, he fired at shoppers and drivers on the packed roadways. He entered the building — a seven-story complex with floors modelled after cities like Paris and Tokyo — with several firearms, including an automatic rifle.
It is relatively easy to legally obtain a gun in Thailand. Beyond military use, a prospective gun owner needs to show a valid reason for owning a gun, such as hunting or self-defence. The minimum age to own a gun in Thailand is 20, and the owner must pass a criminal-background check.
The annual rate of gun deaths in 2016 in Thailand was 2.54 per 100,000 people, according to the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health.
