Friday, 7 August 2026, 6:26
At least seven people died on Friday in an attack that began at a home and continued at a high school on the outskirts of Bangkok. The suspect, a 14-year-old student, killed his grandparents at their home before opening fire at The Debsirin School, then shot himself, according to Thai officials and the Associated Press.
The shooting took place around 10 a.m. at The Debsirin School in the Bang Kruai district of Nonthaburi province, a densely populated area just outside Bangkok. Police and Deputy Interior Minister Polapee Suwunchwee said the suspect was a 14-year-old student. Five school staff members, including teachers and administrators, died in the school shooting, according to AP. Earlier reports from ABC News had said three students and three teachers were among the dead. Bangyai Hospital said 23 people were wounded and 10 were in critical condition.
Thailand's prime minister said the student opened fire at the school, then turned the gun on himself, CNN reported. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul later confirmed that the shooter was 14 and had shown signs of stress connected to school, AP said. The suspect had killed his grandparents earlier in the day, an official told CBS News.
Police said the boy fired more than 20 shots and had more than 30 rounds on him when he shot himself. The gun, described as small and compact, was legally registered to his grandfather. A witness described students hiding in a classroom and then fleeing the school as police officers cleared a path for them to leave. A restaurant owner near the school said the narrow street quickly filled with fleeing students after the shooting began. The school, a co-educational state school with about 3,000 students ages 12 to 18, said all classes would be suspended from Aug. 10-14 and staff were instructed to work from home.
Initial reports differ on the suspect's fate. ABC News, citing Thai police, identified the suspect as a student but did not mention suicide. CNN, citing the prime minister, said the gunman turned the weapon on himself. CBS News made no mention of the suspect's death, but confirmed the killings of the grandparents.
AP later said officials confirmed the suspect took his own life and that police found the grandparents' bodies after breaking into their locked home.
Authorities have not released the suspect's name. The CBS News report described the teenager as "troubled" by a classmate; AP reported that family members described him as a good student who kept to himself.
Classmates described the suspect as a student at the school, but details about his motive have not been released. The attack followed the killing of his grandparents at their home, a sequence of events that has left the community in shock.
AP reported that the boy lived with his grandparents and had shown signs of stress connected to school. His family members, including an uncle and sisters of the grandfather, said he usually kept to himself and was a good student, and they were unaware of any troubles he faced at home or school. The motive for the shooting remains unclear.
The story was covered by ABC7, a San Francisco Bay Area station, reflecting the global reach of the tragedy. The attack is likely to resonate with Thai residents in the Bay Area and across California, though there is no known direct local connection at this time.
School shootings are extremely rare in Thailand. This attack has stunned the nation and drawn attention to school safety in the region.
Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Asia, according to a 2017 study by Small Arms Survey and GunPolicy.org, with about 15.1 civilian guns per 100 people. Firearm deaths were about 4.49 per 100,000 people, according to 2023 statistics from World Population Review. In February, a 17-year-old stole a gun from police and opened fire at a public high school in southern Thailand, killing one person and injuring two. In 2023, a 14-year-old boy was accused of a shooting at a major Bangkok shopping mall.
The investigation is ongoing as Thai authorities work to piece together the events leading up to the shooting. For now, the families of the victims and the wider Nonthaburi community are left to mourn one of the most devastating school attacks in the country's history.
