More than three dozen people have been killed at a childcare center in Thailand in what’s being called one of the most disturbing massacres the country has seen in years. 34-year-old Panya Kamrab, a former police officer who was fired for excessive drug use last year, is accused of killing 38 people, including 24 children as young as two years old, on Thursday, before driving home and murdering his wife and the child they shared together.
According to the BBC, some of the victims who were killed in the attack were sleeping when Kamrab arrived at the site while armed with a pistol, knife, and shotgun. The childcare center had fewer children at the facility on Thursday due to heavy rain, prompting many parents to keep their kids at home, as police say they are still trying to investigate what the motive was behind the senseless attack.
the situation in thailand is really bad right now. hospital is lacking of blood and more than 50 people has been killed.
— son of the sun (@urmysuninnight) October 6, 2022
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“The shooter came in around lunch time and shot four or five officials at the child-care center first,” district official Jidapa Boonsom expressed to Reuters. “At first people thought it was fireworks.” He then made his way to a locked room where children were sleeping and forced his way inside before hacking them to death, Boonsom continued. Images of the aftermath at the childcare center have since been posted on social media, showing bodies of the victims lying in their own blood. An investigation into the massacre is still underway.
After leaving the childcare center, reports claim that he made his way to his car and continued to shoot at people while inside his vehicle — the intent here may have been to keep people away from trying to capture him, but officials say he ended up shooting at several locals that were seriously injured in the process.
34 killed in #Thailand in a mass shooting at a day-care centre by a former policeman who killed his wife and child before shooting himself dead. #thailandshoot #Viral pic.twitter.com/I47QV0VmhI
— Payal Mohindra (@payal_mohindra) October 6, 2022
Kamrab then used his car to plow through a crowd of people as he made his journey back home to find his wife and child, who were both murdered upon his arrival at their house. One of the witnesses, Paweena Purichan, detailed the events that transpired in front of her eyes, saying, “He intended to crash into others on the road. The attacker rammed a motorbike and two people were injured. I sped off to get away from him.”
Apparently, Kamrab had built a reputation for being a drug addict, who was fired from his job as a police officer last year when it was discovered he had been struggling with substance abuse. Per the New York Post, Kamrab flew into a rage after arriving at the childcare center and not seeing his child there, which allegedly led him to begin his killing spree. He took his own life after killing his wife and child.