A 15-year-old student was detained on Wednesday after he allegedly fired eight shots inside a school in Kamphaeng Phet province in Thailand, police said. No one was injured.
The incident occurred around 2pm local time when students were reportedly changing classes, prompting teachers and students to panic and run to take shelter.
This comes just weeks after a 14-year-old boy went on a shooting rampage in Thailand, killing at least seven people, including his own grandparents, before targeting pupils and teachers at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in the Bang Kruai district of Nonthaburi province.
The shooter, a grade nine student, turned on his grandparents at the home he shared with them before attacking the high school and injuring 23 others in the country’s worst mass shooting since 2022.
On Wednesday, police said that personnel and rescue volunteers entered the school in Kamphaeng Phet province and brought the situation under control before taking the student into custody. The name of the school and the suspect have been withheld.
The suspect had been absent from classes since 21 August, The Nation reported. Authorities are now investigating the motive and collecting evidence from the scene. It was also unclear how the suspect acquired the weapon.
Earlier, the school said that the student fired eight shots into the air. Separate reports from the scene said bullets struck a teacher’s car and a glass door. However, it could not be verified. Authorities later confirmed that no one was injured.
Officers reportedly found spent cartridge cases near a security booth at the school entrance, along with more spent and unfired ammunition near a physical education building.
A school security guard said the student entered through the front gate carrying a 9mm handgun and fired a shot that narrowly missed him before moving farther into the school grounds.
A teacher reportedly moved students into an auditorium to shelter.
The school will move classes online for two days, while officials review security measures and provide psychological support to students and staff.
Thailand has strict gun laws, with illegal possession of firearms punishable by up to 10 years in jail.
However, the country is believed to have more than 10 million privately owned guns in circulation, according to data from the University of Sydney – one of the highest gun ownership rates in Southeast Asia, and among the highest per capita in Asia, according to a 2017 estimate by the Small Arms Survey.