School Shooting: 14-Year-Old Student Kills Grandparents, 6 at Nonthaburi School

A 14-year-old student carried out a deadly shooting at a school on the outskirts of Bangkok on Friday, killing his grandparents at home before opening fire at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province and later taking his own life . The attack, which police described as Thailand’s deadliest mass killing since 2022, left at least eight people dead and 15 others wounded . The suspected shooter, a Grade 9 (Mathayom 3) student at the school, first shot both his grandparents at their home in Bang Bua Thong district before arriving at the school premises, and the 9mm handgun used in the attack was legally registered to his grandfather, a former teacher . Police said the teenager fired at least 26 rounds during the rampage and was found with 34 additional ammunition rounds on his person .

The shooting began around 10 a.m. local time when the student, wearing a purple tracksuit, opened fire inside the school’s main building, and he reportedly barricaded himself on the third floor and was eventually found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot to the right side of the head . Police spokesperson Trairong Phophan confirmed the suspected shooter was among those killed at the school . Fatalities at the school included five teachers and school staff — three teachers and two other staff members — along with at least one student, according to police, and reports indicate six people died at the school in addition to the gunman . The injured included 15 people, some with gunshot wounds to the back, chest, and arms, with several reported in critical condition .

Emergency worker Kiatikhun Verapongpradith, 47, described arriving at the scene as the shooting was still ongoing, and his team treated students with injuries to their backs, chests, and arms . On an upper floor, they found a male teacher lying dead, and in a separate room, a female teacher with wounds to her chest and arm . After hearing a final gunshot, responders rushed upstairs and found the suspect had shot himself, and Kiatikhun said, “We rushed up and found that the perpetrator had shot himself in the right side of the head and collapsed. When we got up there, we checked his pulse, he still had one, so we started CPR” . The suspect was transported to the hospital, where he later died .

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Witnesses described scenes of chaos and panic as students fled from classrooms, and an 18-year-old student told Reuters he initially mistook the gunshots for firecrackers or someone banging an object, saying, “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” . Emergency workers evacuated students and teachers as police secured the area . Police earlier warned people to stay away from the area and urged those trapped inside the school to hide and wait for rescue teams, and at one point, police warned on social media that the shooter was in the school’s computer room .

The school, a local branch of the renowned Debsirin School founded in Bangkok in 1885 by King Chulalongkorn, is widely associated with educational prestige and has produced many prominent Thai figures, including diplomats, athletes, and several former prime ministers . The Nonthaburi branch had an enrollment of approximately 3,100 students and 147 teachers during the 2025 academic year, and all classes have been suspended following the attack .

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who visited the scene, expressed deep condolences to the victims’ families and said, “This is terrible for something like this to happen. I’m sad for those who died and sad for something like this to happen in our country” . He noted that the boy had shown signs of academic stress and that his grandparents were reportedly very strict about his studies . Police investigating the suspect’s computer reportedly found that he had searched for and studied an American school shooting case prior to the attack, and a friend of the gunman confirmed he was under great pressure recently and had made thorough preparations .

The attack is the second school shooting in Thailand this year, following a February incident in the south of the country that left a teacher dead and a student injured . Thailand has one of the highest rates of civilian gun ownership in Southeast Asia, and according to a 2017 estimate by the Small Arms Survey, the country has approximately 10.3 million firearms in civilian hands — about 15 guns per 100 residents . Of these, a little more than 6 million are registered, while about 4 million are unregistered, and illegal possession of firearms carries up to 10 years in prison, but enforcement has been a persistent challenge .

Within hours of the shooting, Prime Minister Anutin vowed to introduce a new firearms control law to restrict the carrying of firearms by the public, telling reporters, “The new law will only allow government officials on duty to carry guns” . Thailand currently has separate licenses for owning and carrying firearms, and its licensing regime lacks mental health screening for applicants, allows people as young as 20 to hold weapons, and does not require periodic reassessments for licence holders . Piyaporn Tunneekul, an associate professor at Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University, said, “We only look at things like: Do you have money? Do you have a necessary reason to protect your property? Do you want it for self-defence? But in other countries, authorities say those are not good reasons. We need intervention, a process like other countries have. There are red-flag laws abroad. So these events repeat, but the state does nothing” . Mass shootings have regularly occurred in Thailand, including a 2022 attack in the northeast that killed 36 people, among them 22 children at a daycare centre .

Lagos Needs 80,000 More Health Workers to Avert Crisis – Sanwo-Olu Raises Alarm

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has raised an urgent alarm over the state’s healthcare workforce crisis, revealing that Lagos requires approximately 40,000 additional doctors and another 40,000 nurses to adequately meet the healthcare needs of its rapidly growing population. The governor made this disclosure on Thursday at the opening of the second Eko Health Convention held at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. According to Sanwo-Olu, Lagos currently has only about 7,000 doctors in its workforce, a figure far below what is required to serve the state’s population, and he painted a stark picture of the current situation, stating that every doctor practising in Lagos today is effectively doing the work of ten people.

Beyond the severe manpower shortage, the governor identified inadequate funding as the second major challenge confronting the state’s health sector, disclosing a funding gap of at least N100 billion between what the state’s health budget provides and what the system genuinely requires. Sanwo-Olu also warned that donor financing, which has supported disease control programmes for nearly two decades, is contracting sharply and is unlikely to return in its old form, and this declining external support has further compounded the pressure on government resources.

Despite the workforce and funding challenges, the Federal Ministry of Health’s Q1 2026 health sector performance report showed Lagos recorded the highest skilled birth attendance rate in the country at 100 per cent, a significant achievement that underscores the state’s commitment to maternal health. However, the state also recorded 50 maternal deaths in the first quarter of 2026, up from 26 in the previous quarter, as well as the country’s highest neonatal death toll at 231, an increase from 127 in Q4 2025. The scorecard attributed the bulk of the state’s neonatal mortality reports to Lagos Island and Ikorodu local government areas, highlighting the need for targeted interventions in these communities. The report also showed Lagos spent N180.99 billion on health in 2025 out of a N216.71 billion budget, the highest health expenditure by any state during the period, reflecting the administration’s prioritisation of healthcare despite resource constraints.

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In response to the crisis, Sanwo-Olu said the state government has begun implementing measures to address the workforce deficit, including aggressive recruitment drives, improved welfare packages, provision of accommodation for health workers, and plans to establish a University of Medicine and Health Sciences to expand training capacity. According to the governor, the government recently opened clinical recruitment across all 29 secondary healthcare facilities in the state, and he emphasised that the administration is improving conditions to slow the departures and, increasingly, to attract colleagues back. The governor further stressed that Lagos was moving from delivering healthcare projects to building enduring systems that would guarantee quality, accessible, and affordable healthcare for generations, stating that access without excellence is merely a queue in a clinic within walking distance where the drugs have run out, while excellence without access is a showpiece that a mother in Ajegunle will never enter, and Lagos is not interested in either option.

On health insurance, the governor announced that enrollment under the state’s Ilera Eko health insurance scheme has exceeded 1.5 million residents, with the figure standing at 1,502,994 as of the end of May 2026, and women account for more than half of the beneficiaries with 54 per cent female and 46 per cent male, while residents aged 18 to 60 account for more than 62 per cent of enrollees. The governor noted that utilisation is rising, which indicates that coverage is translating into actual care and not merely into cards in wallets. He also disclosed that the Lagos State Health Management Agency’s Assistance in Distress programme has saved 18 lives since it became operational in March, providing emergency care to victims of road traffic injuries, obstetric crises, strokes, and surgical emergencies regardless of their ability to pay. In an emergency, the governor affirmed, a Lagosian should be stabilised first and asked about payment afterwards, reinforcing the administration’s commitment to compassionate healthcare delivery.

Sanwo-Olu further revealed that the state is leveraging technology through the Lagos Smart Health Information Platform, a digital health information exchange system being implemented across public health institutions, and the platform has reached about 30 per cent implementation covering general hospitals, teaching hospitals, and more than 300 primary healthcare facilities. The platform will enable seamless access to patients’ medical records, improve disease surveillance, and support evidence-based health planning, and the governor explained that when the record travels, the clinician sees the whole patient, and when the data comes together, the policymaker sees the whole city, allowing the system to move from reacting to anticipating. The government is also investing in artificial intelligence and other digital innovations to strengthen diagnosis, medical imaging, and healthcare delivery, and according to the governor, the state recently launched a Digital Health Innovation Challenge to encourage innovators to develop technology-driven solutions for health insurance, emergency response, sickle cell management, neonatal care, and medical research.

Speaking on healthcare infrastructure, Sanwo-Olu highlighted ongoing investments in new general hospitals, climate-smart primary health centres, a children’s hospital, and a mental institute at Ketu-Ejirin, and he also reiterated the government’s zero tolerance for quackery and substandard healthcare practices. The governor reaffirmed his administration’s long-term vision, stressing that ongoing reforms, including Ilera Eko, the health district system, and the digital health platform, are designed to outlive his tenure, and he declared that the administration has kept its promises and is now building the systems that will keep them long after the current leadership. Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, reaffirmed the State Government’s commitment to building a more accessible, affordable, and efficient healthcare system, with plans to position the state as a leading medical tourism destination in Africa, and he reiterated that the state government remains committed to achieving universal health coverage for all residents.