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A 14-year-old boy has been arrested after a mass shooting at a luxury mall in Thailand left three people dead and several others wounded.
Hundreds of shoppers fled Bangkok’s Siam Paragon mall as the shots rang out, while others sought cover in stores and restaurants.
Emergency services shared a photo of a police officer handcuffing the teenage suspect.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin expressed his ‘deepest condolences’ to the families of those killed.
Police spokesman Archayon Kraithong told reporters a suspect was taken into custody after the shooting and the situation is now under control.
Yutthana Sretthanan, director of Bangkok’s Emergency Medical Center said that three people were killed dead and six were hurt.
Unverified videos on social media showed scenes of chaos (Picture: Reuters)
Witnesses said crowds of people left the building, one of several shopping centres in the area popular with tourists and well-heeled Thais alike.
Chinese tourist Liu Shiying described seeing people running and saying someone had opened fire. She said she heard gunshots and an alarm ringing, and that the lights in the mall went out.
‘We’re temporarily hiding. Who dares to go out?’ she said while taking cover. She was later able to leave.
Gun violence is not uncommon in Thailand, though mass shootings are rare.
This incident comes days before the country planned to mark the anniversary of a grisly gun and knife attack at a rural day care centre that killed 36 people, most of them preschoolers, on October 6, 2022.
In 2020, a disgruntled soldier opened fire in and around a mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, killing 29 people and holding off security forces for some 16 hours before eventually being killed by them.
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