17 killed in shooting rampage by Thai soldier in Korat, Thailand

A Thai soldier has shot dead “many people” in and around city of Korat, north-east of Bangkok, reports say.

Washington Post reports that “the Thai soldier killed at least 17 people Saturday in a shooting rampage that began with the gunman killing his commander at an Army camp. Authorities are trying to establish negotiations with the gunman, who is holed up at a shopping mall.

The alleged shooter, identified by authorities as 32-year-old Jakrapanth Thomma, is a sergeant in the Thai military. The attack began around 3:30 p.m., when Thomma fatally shot his commanding officer and then attacked the Terminal 21 mall in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima, also known as Korat, a major city in the northeastern Isan province of Thailand that is about three and a half hours from Bangkok.

Thomma stole his weapons from a military camp, a defense spokesman told BBC Thai.

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Earlier Bangkok Post said at least 12 people were reported killed and an unknown number injured in the shooting spree by a soldier who sprayed bullets at a commander, fellow soldiers and civilians in Muang district on Saturday.

Suspected shooter Jakrapanth Thomma – Facebook page via Bangkok Times

The attacker first shot dead his commander and two others inside a military camp before fleeing in a stolen Humvee. He fired at civilians along the route to Terminal 21 shopping mall in Muang district.

The attacker streamed the shootings in the mall on Facebook Live and took a selfie holding a rifle. “So tired,” he wrote at 7.20pm.

Developing story

 

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