A morning of routine lessons at a school on Bangkok’s outskirts erupted into terror when a 14-year-old student opened fire, killing at least five people and then himself after first fatally shooting his grandparents, police said — the deadliest mass killing in Thailand since 2022.
Police said all of those killed at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School were teachers and staff. Investigators said the teenager fired at least 26 bullets with a gun belonging to his grandfather, and officers later found an additional 34 rounds.
Outside the school in the capital’s northwestern outskirts, students poured out as ambulances arrived for the injured. Teachers clung to one another, visibly shaken, some in tears, as the scene unfolded.
Images shared by emergency workers showed one person lying on a stretcher beside an ambulance, while a medic treated another casualty nearby.
Police said 23 people were wounded in the incident.
Students take cover in classroom during Thai school shooting
The shooting adds to a string of widely reported gun attacks in Thailand in recent years. The country has by far the highest number of firearms in civilian hands in southeast Asia and ranks among the highest per capita in Asia, according to a 2017 estimate by the Small Arms Survey.
An 18-year-old student who was at the school said he initially mistook the sound of gunfire for something far less alarming.
“I didn’t think it was a gun at first,” he said. “There were many shots: bang, bang, bang. Then it went quiet. Then it started again.”
Education Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong said both teachers and students were among the casualties, adding that authorities were investigating the motive.
Students and parents gather outside the school following the shooting in Bang Kruai district
The incident is Thailand’s second school shooting of the year, following a February attack in the country’s south in which a teacher was killed and a student injured.
District authorities said Debsirin Nonthaburi School had around 3,100 students and 147 teachers in the 2025 academic year.
“This is terrible for something like this to happen,” Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters. “I’m sad for those who died and sad for something like this to happen in our country.”
An ambulance leaves the school following the shooting
Thailand’s worst mass killing by a lone attacker in recent history occurred in 2022, when a former policeman — recently dismissed from his job — carried out a three-hour gun-and-knife assault in the northeast, killing 36 people including his wife and son, as well as 22 children who were stabbed in their sleep at a daycare centre.
In 2020, a soldier killed 29 people in Nakhon Ratchasima in a rampage that included a shopping centre. In July last year, a gunman shot dead five people at a Bangkok market — including security guards and a vendor — before taking his own life.
Thailand also saw a deadly attack in 2023 when a 14-year-old killed two people and wounded five others at a high-end Bangkok shopping centre, using a modified handgun that police said was likely bought online.
Following that 2023 shooting, Mr Anutin, then serving as interior minister, ordered a series of gun-control steps, including a short-term ban on new licences, import limits, and barring those under 20 from using shooting ranges.
Authorities also set out longer-term measures, including requiring a medical certificate to assess the mental health and psychological condition of gun owners and introducing a defined validity period for some gun licences.
The Small Arms Survey estimated Thailand had about 10.3 million firearms in civilian possession — roughly 15 guns for every 100 residents.
