A security stands guard following shots fired at the luxury Siam Paragon shopping mall, in Bangkok, Thailand.
Credit: Reuters Photo
A 14-year-old with a gun opened fire in a luxury shopping mall in downtown Bangkok on Tuesday, authorities said, killing three people and injuring four in one of Thailand’s most popular tourist destinations.
The shooting started around 4:20 p.m. in the Siam Paragon mall, according to Bangkok police. The suspect was arrested within the hour, according to the force’s metropolitan bureau. The Erawan Center, a Bangkok emergency response center, provided the casualty count.
On social media, witnesses uploaded videos of people screaming as gunshots were heard in the bathroom of a mall. Other video clips showed the injured being taken away in an ambulance.
Mass shootings are rare in Thailand, where gun regulations are relatively strict. It remains unclear how a 14-year-old would have come to possess a firearm. Would-be buyers must be older than 20, undergo a background check and provide a reason for ownership.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he had “instructed the police commissioner to go investigate and monitor the situation,” adding: “What I worry about the most is the safety of all the people.”
The motive for the shooting was unknown. The suspect had just turned 14 in September.
A video of the suspect in police custody showed a bespectacled teenager dressed in a cap with an American flag, wearing a black polo T-shirt and shorts with blood spatter on them.
Siam Paragon, situated in the heart of downtown Bangkok and opposite the headquarters of the Royal Thai Police, is a luxury mall popular among tourists and locals. The shooting prompted authorities to seal off the subway station linked to the mall.
The attack occurred almost exactly a year after a former police officer armed with a handgun and a knife went on a rampage in a day care center in northeastern Thailand, killing 36 people, 24 of them children. It was the worst mass shooting by a sole perpetrator in Thailand’s history, prompting a debate about whether gun laws should be tightened in the country.