A 14-year-old student opened fire at a high school outside Bangkok on Friday, killing at least eight people before taking his own life, according to Thai authorities, in the country's deadliest mass shooting since 2022 and the second school shooting reported this year.
The attack unfolded at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province, northwest of the Thai capital, sending terrified students scrambling for cover as gunfire echoed through the campus. Witnesses said classrooms were barricaded as students hid inside until police officers arrived and safely escorted them out.
Emergency responders rushed the wounded to hospitals while distraught teachers, students and families gathered outside the school, embracing one another as police secured the scene and began collecting evidence.
Authorities have provided conflicting casualty figures that have yet to be fully reconciled.
Royal Thai Police spokesperson Lt. Gen. Trairong Piwpan told The Associated Press that six people at the school, including three teachers and three students, were killed. He said the suspected gunman was hospitalized in critical condition and that 15 other people were injured, including two in critical condition.
Deputy Interior Minister Polapee Suwunchwee later told reporters that five teachers had been killed and said the teenage suspect had fatally shot his two grandparents at their home before driving to the school. He added that the suspect later died in the hospital, bringing the total death toll to at least eight.
Health Minister Pattana Promphat reported 22 injuries, including nine people in critical condition. He noted that some victims were hurt while fleeing the chaos, making it unclear how many sustained gunshot wounds.
Police identified the shooter as a 14-year-old student who fired at least 26 rounds during the attack. Investigators recovered 34 additional rounds of ammunition and said the handgun had belonged to the teenager's grandfather and was believed to have been taken from a family member.
Authorities have not determined a motive.
An 18-year-old student told Reuters he initially mistook the sound of gunfire for firecrackers.
"I didn't think it was a gun at first," he said. "There were many shots: bang bang bang. Then it went quiet. Then it started again."
Emergency worker Kiatikhun Verapongpradith said his team arrived while the shooting was still underway and treated students suffering gunshot wounds to the back, chest and arms.
He said responders discovered a male teacher dead on an upper floor before finding a female teacher with gunshot wounds to her chest and arm in another classroom.
Moments later, they found the teenage gunman after what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
"We rushed up and found that the perpetrator had shot himself in the right side of the head and collapsed," Verapongpradith said. "When we got up there, we checked his pulse. He still had one, so we started CPR."
The suspect was transported to a hospital, where authorities later said he died.
The school enrolls about 3,100 students and employs 147 teachers, according to district authorities.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul expressed condolences to the victims' families and said he had instructed government agencies to provide assistance.
"This is terrible for something like this to happen," Anutin told reporters. "I'm sad for those who died and sad for something like this to happen in our country."
The shooting is the second attack at a Thai school this year. In February, a 17-year-old stole a police officer's firearm and opened fire at a public high school in southern Thailand, killing one person, injuring two others and briefly taking hostages during a two-hour standoff.
Thailand has experienced a series of high-profile mass shootings in recent years despite tighter gun regulations.
The country's deadliest modern mass killing occurred in 2022 when a former police officer carried out a gun-and-knife attack at a daycare center in northeastern Thailand, killing 36 people, including 22 children.
In 2023, a 14-year-old boy allegedly used a modified handgun to kill two people and wound five others at a luxury shopping mall in Bangkok. In July 2025, a gunman killed five people at a Bangkok market before turning the weapon on himself. Another school shooting in February this year left a teacher dead in the southern city of Hat Yai.
Following the 2023 mall attack, then-Interior Minister Anutin introduced stricter gun control measures, including a temporary suspension of new firearm licenses, tighter import restrictions and a ban on people younger than 20 from using shooting ranges. Authorities also required some gun owners to undergo mental health evaluations and placed expiration dates on certain firearm licenses.
Despite those measures, Thailand continues to have one of Southeast Asia's highest levels of civilian gun ownership. According to the Small Arms Survey, civilians possessed an estimated 10.3 million firearms in 2017, or roughly 15 guns for every 100 residents.
