Thirty-four people have been killed, including 22 children, in a mass shooting at a preschool centre in a north-eastern province of Thailand, police have said.
The shooting occurred in Na Klang district in Nong Bua Lamphu province during the afternoon, while children at the centre were sleeping. Police said the gunman shot himself, his wife and his child during the incident.
Chanpen Dechpok, a village chief, said the children at the centre were of nursery age.
Maj Gen Paisan Leusomboon, the deputy police commissioner, told Thai channel PPTV HD 36 that the perpetrator was a former police officer who had recently been fired from work and had drug addiction problems.
Photographs showed at least two bodies on the floor of the centre covered in white sheets. A local hospital has appealed for blood.
The rate of gun ownership in Thailand is high compared with some other countries in the region, but official figures do not include huge numbers of illegal weapons, many of which have been brought in across porous borders over the years from strife-torn neighbours.
Mass shootings in Thailand are rare, but in 2020 a soldier angry over a property deal killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations.
Reuters contributed to this report
