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 .