Shooting in Thailand shopping mall kills at least three people

Police in Thailand arrested a 14-year-old after a shooting at a shopping mall in the capital Bangkok on October 3 left at least three people dead and four others injured.

Local authorities held the suspect with a weapon, and are assessing exact casualties, Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau said.

The shooting took place around 5 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) at the Siam Paragon Mall in Bangkok, Police Colonel Noppadol Thiammekha, Pathum Wan Police Chief told CNN on October 3.

Gun ownership in the Southeast Asian country is high compared with other countries in the region.

More than 10.3 million civilians held firearms in Thailand, or around 15 guns for every 100 people, according to 2017 data from the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey (SAS). About 6.2 million of those guns are legally registered, according to SAS.

Thailand tallies the second-highest gun homicides after the Philippines in Southeast Asia, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s 2019 Global Burden of Disease database.

But mass shootings in the country are rare. In October 2022, at least 36 people were killed in a gun and knife attack at a childcare centre in northeastern Thailand.

The massacre in Nong Bua Lamphu province was believed to be the country’s deadliest incident of its kind.