At least four people have been killed after a student opened fire at a school north of Bangkok, Thailand’s education minister has said, with police later giving a more detailed account of the casualties as the picture around the attack continues to develop.
At least four people have been killed after a student opened fire at a school in Thailand, according to the country’s education minister, Prasert Jantararuangtong, who confirmed the deaths to the Reuters news agency. The shooting took place at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in the Bang Kruai district of Nonthaburi province, just northwest of Bangkok, a school with around 3,100 students and 147 teachers. News of the attack broke at around 4am UK time, and several details, including the exact toll and the fate of the gunman, remained unclear in the immediate aftermath.
What is known so far
According to the education minister, the four people killed included both teachers and students. A Thai interior ministry official said the shooter was a student at the school. Early reports conflicted over what happened to the gunman: police said he had killed himself, while the interior ministry official said he had been wounded rather than killed, leaving it initially unclear whether he was among the four dead.
Thai police later gave a more detailed breakdown of the casualties, saying one teacher had been killed and four other people had been injured, including a second teacher and three students. Police also said the attacker, a student at the school, had died by suicide following the shooting. As is often the case in the early hours of a breaking incident, official accounts developed and were refined as police completed their initial assessment of the scene.
Eyewitness accounts
Early testimony from those inside the school has begun to emerge. One 18-year-old student told Reuters that he initially mistook the sound of gunfire for firecrackers or someone banging an object. “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,” he said.
Response and investigation
Emergency services evacuated students and staff from the school following the attack, while police secured the campus and searched the buildings. The motive behind the shooting has not yet been established, and police say their investigation is continuing.
Part of a wider pattern
This is the second fatal school shooting to take place in Thailand this year. In February 2026, a 17-year-old who had stolen a police officer’s firearm opened fire at a school in Songkhla province, killing a teacher and injuring a student.
Although Thailand maintains relatively strict firearms laws on paper, illegal weapons remain widely accessible in the country, which has experienced several high-profile mass shootings in recent years.
This is a developing story and further details are expected as the investigation continues.
