Gunman takes hostages after firing shots at school in southern Thailand

“The perpetrator has been captured,” said Deputy Superintendent Wichian Soboon.
Patongprathankiriwat School in Songkhla Province’s Hat Yai.
Patongprathankiriwat School in Songkhla Province’s Hat Yai.Google Maps
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A gunman who fired shots at a school in Hat Yai district in southern Thailand on Wednesday has been detained and all the people who were held hostage have been freed, a police official told Reuters.

An 18-year-old man entered the Patongprathankiriwat School in Songkhla Province’s Hat Yai earlier on Wednesday with a gun, the provincial administration said on social media.

“The perpetrator has been captured,” Deputy Superintendent Wichian Soboon told Reuters.

At least three people were injured in the incident, a second police official said.

Gun violence and ownership are not uncommon in Thailand, where a former police officer killed 36 people, including 22 children, in a gun-and-knife attack at a nursery in the country’s east in 2022.