Bangkok, Oct 3, (dpa/GNA) – A 14-year-old boy shot dead two people, at a popular shopping mall in the Thai capital Bangkok on Tuesday.
Five other victims were injured, Thai radio station Thai PBS reported Tuesday.
The perpetrator was arrested at the scene, it said. There was initially no information about the young person’s possible motive.
The mall is among the most well-known in Bangkok, and is popular among locals and tourists alike.
It is located at Siam Railway Station, a major hub in the capital.
Hundreds of people had fled the mall, after gunshot-like sounds were heard inside the shopping complex. It was not immediately clear whether shots had actually been fired, but then, there were the first reports of injuries.
Sirens blared, as ambulances pulled up in heavy rain.
Videos on social media showed some frightened customers, barricading themselves inside the mall.
The station exit at nearby Siam train station was closed, to prevent commuters from leaving the station. The incident occurred at the start of the evening rush hour.
The incident shocked Thailand, shortly before the first anniversary of a horrific act of violence, in which a former police officer armed with guns and knives killed 36 people, most of them children, in a daycare centre in the north-east of the country on October 6 last year.
According to local media reports, the perpetrator who fled, later killed himself, after also killing his wife and child. A good two years earlier, a soldier killed 29 people in a shooting spree. He had taken hostages in a shopping centre, also in the north-east of the country. The man was later shot dead by security forces.
Gun violence is not uncommon in Thailand. There were around 7.2 million firearms in private hands in Thailand in 2021, according to a database operated by the University of Sydney. Statistically, there was a firearm for every tenth resident.
Thailand has one of the highest gun ownership rates in all of South-East Asia, according to Time magazine.
GNA