Youth in Thailand carries out deadly rampage, claiming lives of relatives and multiple employees

A shooting spree in Thailand has claimed the lives of at least seven people, with the perpetrator being a 14-year-old male teenager, as reported by Reuters on Friday.

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The victims included the teenager's grandparents and five staff members, comprising teachers, at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School, located on the northwestern outskirts of Bangkok, the capital city.

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The gunman fired a minimum of 26 bullets from a gun that belonged to his grandfather, with an additional 34 rounds found at the scene, according to the report.

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Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul expressed his sorrow, stating, "This is terrible for something like this to happen, I'm sad for those who died and sad for something like this to happen in our country."

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The bodies of the teenager's grandparents were discovered by police in their home, with Charnvirakul noting that the gunman had been experiencing stress related to his studies.

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A student at the school, an 18-year-old whose name was not disclosed, initially thought the sound of gunfire was from firecrackers, recalling, "I didn’t think it was a gun at first, there were many shots: bang, bang, bang, then it went quiet, then it started again."

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Friday's incident is the latest in a series of mass shootings in Thailand in recent years, a country with the highest number of civilian-owned guns in Southeast Asia, estimated to be around 40%.

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This incident marks the second school shooting in Thailand this year, following an earlier incident in February where a teacher died and a student was injured.

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Emergency worker Kiatikhun Verapongpradith, 47, described the scene, saying, "We rushed up and found that the perpetrator had shot himself in the right side of the head and collapsed."

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Verapongpradith added that upon arriving at the school, his team treated students with injuries to the back, chest, and arms, and found a teacher dead on an upper floor, as well as a female teacher with chest and arm wounds in another room.

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A female seventh grader, still in her school uniform, recounted her escape from the shooting to the BBC, with her mother by her side, saying, "She was talking to me when [the gunman] showed up and shot her, I couldn’t see anything but a cloud of dust, I had to climb over the school fence to escape with other friends."

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Under Thai law, the illegal possession of arms can result in imprisonment of up to 10 years, although the police have not reported that the firearm used by the boy, which belonged to his grandfather, is illegal.

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The Debsirin Nonthaburi School had an enrollment of approximately 3,100 students and 147 teachers in the 2025 academic year, according to district authorities.