Student kills teacher, injures four at Thailand school

A student opened fire at a high school on the northwestern outskirts of Bangkok on Friday, killing a teacher and injuring four other people before taking his own life, authorities said.

The shooting occurred at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Bang Kruai district of Nonthaburi province, northwest of the Thai capital. Police identified the gunman as a student but released no further details about him.

Royal Thai Police spokesperson Trairong Piwpan told The Associated Press that police were responding to the shooting at the school. Arsit Sampantharat, permanent secretary for the Interior Ministry, told the news station PPTV earlier that the shooter was a student who remained inside the school and that deaths and injuries had been reported. Officials initially did not say how many people had been hurt or publicly confirm the shooter’s status.

Authorities later said one teacher had been killed, four other people were injured and the gunman had died by suicide, Al Jazeera reported.

Images from the scene about an hour after the shooting showed people standing outside the school comforting one another while police and first responders moved around inside. The building appeared to have been secured. Photos circulated by emergency workers showed students streaming from the school as ambulances operated at the site. In one image, a person was seen lying on a stretcher outside an ambulance while another was being treated by a medic.

A witness told reporters that students hid inside a classroom after hearing gunshots from another building. Police officers later knocked on the door and cleared a path for them to leave.

An 18-year-old student told Reuters that he first thought the noise was firecrackers or someone banging an object.

“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.”

Debsirin Nonthaburi School had about 3,100 students and 147 teachers enrolled in the 2025 academic year, according to district authorities.

The shooting followed other attacks at schools and public places in Thailand in recent years. In February, a 17-year-old stole a gun from police and opened fire at a public high school in southern Thailand, briefly taking people hostage during a two-hour attack that killed one person and injured two others, NPR reported. Al Jazeera reported that the February shooting happened in Hat Yai district, where a teacher was killed and a student injured after a gunman opened fire at a school.

In October 2022, a former police officer killed dozens of people, including children, in a gun and knife attack in Nong Bua Lamphu province. In 2023, a 14-year-old boy was accused of carrying out a shooting at a major Bangkok shopping mall.

Thailand has strict gun laws, and possession of an illegal firearm carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years. Al Jazeera reported that gun ownership remains high compared with some other countries in the region. The country has tightened laws after mass shootings in recent years, including requiring a medical evaluation for people seeking to buy a gun or renew a gun license.