At least three people were killed and four were injured in a shooting at a major shopping center in Bangkok on Tuesday, Thai emergency services said.
“The attacker has been arrested. The situation is calm again,” Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Thai television, according to the AFP news agency.
According to EFE, the incident, which started around 4:30 PM local time (9:30 AM in Lisbon), ended less than an hour later with the arrest of the attacker, who according to local media is a minor.
Hundreds of people left the building, located in the center of the Thai capital, said an AFP journalist on the scene. Videos on social media show scenes of panic.
Three people were killed and three others injured in a shooting at the Siam Paragon shopping center in Thailand’s capital, emergency services said https://t.co/XELhvKlGvx
-Reuters (@Reuters) October 3, 2023
[Update] People are seen leaving the mall.
The gunshots, confirmed by police, come from the M floor, where an active shooter is believed to be on the scene.#Thailand #Bangkok #สยามพารากอน pic.twitter.com/MT3eZmY5nP
– Thai Enquirer (@ThaiEnquirer) October 3, 2023
Siam Paragon is one of Bangkok’s premier shopping centers, popular with locals and tourists from all over the world.
This incident comes almost a year after the largest mass murder in Thailand’s modern history, in Nong Bua Lam Phu (Northeast) province. A former police officer killed 36 people, most of them children under the age of five, in an attack – with guns and knives – that lasted more than three hours.
These gun attacks claim victims in Thailand every week.
In 2017, the country had approximately ten million firearms, almost half of them [quatro milhões] were not registered with authorities, according to the Small Arms Survey, a Swiss research program.
In 2020, a murder at a shopping center in Nakhon Ratchasima left 29 people dead.
Source: DN
