Nakhon Ratchasima: A soldier holed himself up in a popular mall in this northeastern Thai city on Saturday, and shot at least 20 people dead with an assault rifle and injured 31 others, the police said. He relayed the killings on Facebook.
Shortly before midnight, the authorities said they had secured the mall and evacuated the terrified shoppers but did not seem to know for sure the whereabouts of the shooter.
The Thai Defence Ministry identified the shooter as Sergeant-Major Jakrapanth Thomma, who was apparently upset over a land dispute.
There were fears the shooter in the Terminal 21 mall in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima, better known as Korat, could try to hide in the panicked crowd.
Public health minister Anutin Charnvirakul said there were no more bodies left inside the mall. He did not say whether the shooter had been found.
The gunman appeared to be armed with an assault rifle, based on security camera video aired on Thai Rath television. Thai Rath said the incident began at about 3:30 p.m.
A police officer contacted by phone said the soldier initially shot dead another soldier and a woman and wounded a third person, apparently over a land dispute.
City and neighborhood police officers, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to release information, said the man took a gun from his base and drove to the Terminal 21 Korat mall, shooting along the way. Several Thai media reported that he traveled in a military vehicle.
The suspect posted updates to his Facebook page during the rampage with statements including "No one can escape death" and “Should I give up?" In a later post he wrote, “I have stopped already.''
His profile picture shows him in a mask and dressed in military-style fatigues and armed with a pistol. The background image is of a handgun and bullets.
In a photo circulated on social media that appeared to be taken from his Facebook page, the suspect can be seen wearing a green camouflaged military helmet while a fireball and black smoke rage behind him. The Facebook page was made inaccessible after the shooting began.
Video taken outside the mall and shared on social media showed people taking cover in a parking lot as gunshots were fired.
The mall was shut down and the street outside was closed while the authorities tried to find the gunman and rescue shoppers inside. The government asked broadcasters not to go live from the scene.
Eyewitness account
In the initial stages, people were unsure what was happening. Nattaya Nganiem, who shot a video from outside the mall in which gunshots were heard, recounted what she experienced.
"We just left the mall after we had our meal. While we were in our car on the opposite side, we heard a loud sound and then we could see people starting to run out. First I saw a woman run out from the mall hysterically. Then a motorcycle rider in front of her just ran and left his motorcycle there.
“I thought, what's happening? Then we heard several gunshots. The motorcycle guy probably had seen the gunman from where he was. ... We couldn't see the gunman but we could hear the sound of the gun. It was terrifying. We were just inside having dinner and my child was getting unusually restless, that's why we left; otherwise, we would have been stuck inside there. I can't believe this is happening in my hometown. I mean, this shopping mall, we go there almost every other day. ''
Once she got home and learned what had happened, she fainted, she said.
Nakhon Ratchasima, also known as Korat, is about 250 km northeast of the Thai capital, Bangkok. It is a hub for Thailand's relatively poorer and rural northeastern region.
Terminal 21 Korat is part of a small chain of Thai shopping centres run by Bangkok-based property developer LH Mall & Hotel Co. The malls feature floors modeled after major cities around the world.
The size of the mall posed a challenge for security forces as they tried to capture the gunman. It consists of seven main retail floors, including one below ground level, and scores of shops and restaurants. It also houses a movie theatre on the top floor.
Many malls in Thailand, including Terminal 21's namesake in Bangkok, have metal detectors and security cameras at entrances manned by uniformed but unarmed security guards. Checks on those entering are often cursory at best.
Gun violence in Thailand
Gun violence is not unheard of in Thailand. Firearms can be obtained legally, and many Thais own guns. Mass shootings are rare, though there are occasional gun battles in the far south of the country, where authorities have for years battled a long-running separatist insurgency.
The incident came just a month after another high-profile mall shooting, in the central Thai city of Lopburi. In that case, a masked gunman carrying a handgun with a silencer killed three people, including a two-year-old boy, and wounded four others as he robbed a jewellery store. A suspect, a school director, was arrested less than two weeks later and reportedly confessed, saying he did not mean to shoot anyone.
