Gunman who fired shots in Thai school detained after wounding teacher and girl

BANGKOK, Feb 11 (Reuters) – A gunman who used a firearm stolen from a police officer to wound a teacher and a girl at a school in southern Thailand’s Hat Yai district on Wednesday has been detained, authorities said.

The 17-year-old suspect entered Patongprathankiriwat School in Songkhla Province’s Hat Yai earlier in the day, appearing agitated, the provincial government said in a statement.

The suspect has a sister at the school, police commander Teerasak Chaiyotha said, but a motive has yet to be determined. 

A female teacher was critically injured and had undergone surgery and was now in an intensive care unit, while a teen girl was shot in the waist and was now in stable condition, he added.

In a photograph shared by police, the suspect, barefoot and wearing shorts and a T-shirt, is shown pinned to the ground by armed officers.

He had earlier attacked a police officer and stolen his firearm, provincial governor Ratthasart Chidchoo said, adding that the suspect had a history of substance abuse and was discharged from a psychiatric hospital in December.

In a video obtained by Reuters, armed police officers storm the three-storey school building as gunfire rings out.

Another video shows students running down staircases while police – some wearing helmets, black bulletproof vests, and carrying rifles – shout: “Go home kids, it’s safe.”

Gun violence and ownership are not uncommon in Thailand. In 2002, a former police officer killed 36 people, including 22 children, in a gun-and-knife attack at a nursery in the country’s east.

(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat, Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal, Editing by Andrew Heavens, Bernadette Baum, Ros Russell)