Thai school shooting kills five staff, leaves 10 critically injured

Five school staff members were killed and 10 people were left in critical condition after a 14-year-old student opened fire at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Bang Kruai district, Nonthaburi province, just northwest of Bangkok. The attack on Friday sent students running from the campus as emergency crews rushed to the scene.

Authorities said the suspect first shot and killed his grandparents at home before going to school and opening fire there. Officials described the assault as premeditated, and Reuters later reported that the teenage gunman also died. Early reports in the first hours were less certain, with some saying at least five people were killed and more than 20 were injured, before later updates raised the death toll to at least seven and the number of wounded to more than 30.

Reuters and CNN said five teachers were among the dead. BBC News reported that more than 30 people were injured, including nine who were severely hurt, underscoring the scale of the violence inside a school where teachers and children were suddenly caught in the path of the gunfire.

One pupil told BBC News she was standing in front of her teacher when the teacher was shot, a detail that captured the panic on the grounds and the direct trauma faced by witnesses. The shooting was described as one of Thailand’s deadliest school attacks in years, a grim distinction in a country where such incidents are relatively rare.

The attack has renewed pressure on Thai authorities to confront gun access, school protection and the speed of emergency response when violence reaches a campus. Debsirin Nonthaburi School, in a populated area outside the capital, became the center of a national shock that now extends beyond the loss of life to how a student was able to move from a home killing to a school shooting on the same day.