A student suspected of carrying out a deadly school shooting in Thailand first killed his grandparents before attacking teachers and pupils at his school, police have said.
The shooting took place on Friday in the Bang Kruai district of Nonthaburi province, on the outskirts of Bangkok. National police said the suspect used his grandfather’s handgun and killed eight people before taking his own life.
According to police, the victims included the suspect’s grandparents, three teachers and three students at Debsirin Nonthaburi School. Lt Col Dechrapee Kongdee, the Nonthaburi provincial police commander, confirmed that the suspected gunman had died by suicide.
The suspect was a student in the ninth grade, which typically includes children aged around 14, Lt Col Kongdee told the BBC. Police said in a statement that the gunman fired 26 rounds, while a further 34 rounds of ammunition were found at the scene.
Thailand’s health minister, Pattana Promphat, said 22 people were injured in the attack, with nine reported to be in a critical condition. Some people were injured through causes including falls, and it was not immediately clear how many of the injured had been shot.
Arsit Sampantharat, the permanent secretary for the interior ministry, told news station PPTV that the shooter was a student and remained inside the school after initial reports of the attack emerged.
A witness told reporters that students hid inside a classroom after hearing gunshots from another building. The witness said police officers later knocked on the classroom door and cleared a route for them to leave.
The attack is the second school shooting reported in Thailand this year. In February, a teacher was killed and a student was injured in a shooting in the south of the country.
Debsirin Nonthaburi School had an enrolment of about 3,100 students and 147 teachers in the 2025 academic year, according to district authorities. The school is part of a network of Debsirin secondary schools founded by the Thai royal family, whose alumni include prime ministers, scholars and writers.
Authorities have not yet given further details about a possible motive. Police statements so far have focused on the sequence of events, the weapon used and the number of rounds fired.
The incident has prompted a major emergency response in Nonthaburi, a province bordering Bangkok. Officials continued to provide updates on the condition of the injured and the police investigation on Friday.
