Eight dead in mass shooting in Thailand. Here's how it unfolded.

From his quiet home to a shooting spree at school, a Thai teenager's deadly rampage Sat 8 Aug 2026 at 11:53am The Thai Prime Minister has vowed to introduce a new firearms control law after a teenager killed seven people at a high school and a home outside Bangkok. Police say the 14-year-old shooter then turned the gun on himself. More details have emerged about how the tragedy unfolded. Here's what we know. Readers are advised this article contains details that may be distressing. Shooting began at dawn A Thai police official said the shooting started at around 5am local time when the boy killed his grandparents in their two-storey house on the outskirts of Bangkok. Police Colonel Thadsakorn Konthong, superintendent of Bang Bua Thong Police Station, told Reuters: "The firearm and the bullets belonged to the grandfather. "An initial inspection found signs that the firearm had been searched for inside the grandfather's bedroom." The three of them lived together in the house in Bang Bua Thong, in a quiet neighbourhood, a 90-minute drive from central Bangkok. Police say the teenager then took school transport as normal, and headed to Debsirin Nonthaburi School. His first class began at 8:30am, followed by another at 9:20am. About half an hour into the boy's second class of the day he drew out the gun and began shooting again. What happened on sixth floor The teenager is believed to have first shot teachers on the sixth floor of the building where he studied, killing three of them, police said. The gunman then appears to have continued down a corridor, shooting at students. Two other staff members were attacked and killed on a staircase. Police got a call about a shooting at 9:57am. Students have described how they ran out of the school in their socks or bare feet, leaving their shoes behind. Police cleared the building floor-by-floor and found the teenager on the fourth floor, where he had already shot himself. The time was around 10:40am. Police say he was still alive, so they performed CPR and rushed him to the hospital. The 14-year-old died soon after. Chaos outside When he arrived at the school, emergency worker Kiatikhun Verapongpradith said the scene was chaotic as his team began treating students with wounds to the back, chest and arms. "We were evaluating the sort of weapons he had," he said, referring to the gunman. "Therefore, we could not rush inside. The police then took a team with shields up there." Prime Minister laments 'terrible' attack The boy's motives remain unclear. "He was stressed from his studies," Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters after he visited the school. "This is terrible for something like this to happen," he said. "I'm sad for those who died and sad for something like this to happen in our country." The student was also described by police as "quiet, not very sociable, and fairly good academically". Renewed scrutiny of gun regulations Friday's rampage was Thailand's worst mass shooting since 2022. What happened has renewed scrutiny of gun regulations in Thailand, Southeast Asia's largest gun-owning nation with roughly 15 firearms per 100 residents. This compares with less than one per 100 in neighbouring Malaysia Mr Anutin, who tightened gun laws when he was interior minister following a previous mass shooting, said he will propose a new law to restrict the carrying of firearms by the public. "As much as possible, we have to create an atmosphere of safety," he said. ABC/Reuters