A gunman yesterday shot and killed five people at a popular fresh food market in the Thai capital before killing himself, police said.
The victims included security guards at the Or Tor Kor market in the district of Chatuchak in Bangkok, a police statement said.
The Erawan Medical Center, which coordinates emergency medical services, reported two women were also wounded.
Photo: EPA
The market, next to the sprawling weekend Chatuchak Market, carries all sorts of goods and is popular with Thai and foreign tourists.
A video circulating online reportedly showed the shooter wearing a baseball cap and shorts walking in the market with a backpack strapped to his chest and a handgun in his right hand.
Police said they were probing details about the suspect, including his motivation.
National Police Chief Pol General Kitrat Phanphet said he has ordered city police to carry out their investigation quickly and gather all evidence, including closed-circuit video footage.
Gun violence is not unusual in Thailand, which has fairly restrictive laws, but also a high level of gun ownership.
The last mass shooting incident in Bangkok was in October 2023, when a teenage boy, using a modified blank pistol, shot more than half a dozen people at the Paragon shopping mall in the city’s main shopping district, killing three.
One of the nation’s worst mass killings occurred in October 2022 in the northeastern province of Nong Bua Lamphua, when a police sergeant who had lost his job used guns and knives to kill 36 people, including two dozen toddlers at a day care center.
In February 2020, a disgruntled Thai army soldier shot and killed 29 people, most at a shopping mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, before he was killed by police after an 18-hour standoff.
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