A former policeman has killed at least 36 people in a gun rampage at a nursery in Thailand. Video / AP
WARNING: Distressing content.
A disgraced former police officer who launched a massacre at a nursery in Thailand on Thursday "didn't say anything" as he used a gun and a knife to kill at least 37 people, most of them children, according to witnesses.
Speaking to Reuters, two teachers recounted the horrific scenes during one of the kingdom's deadliest mass killings.
"He was in the middle of reloading the gun – I held up my hands and begged for mercy," one of the teachers said.
The second teacher said staff at first thought gunman Panya Khamrab was "coming to pick up his kid", who usually attended the childcare centre in northeastern Nong Bua Lam Phu province, 480km north east of Bangkok.
According to reports, Panya arrived at the nursery and became agitated after realising his child was not there.
"He was already stressed and when he couldn't find his child he was more stressed and started shooting," police spokesman Paisan Luesomboon told broadcaster ThaiPBS.
"When he tried to barge in, I thought the kid that died was playing with a firecracker," the first teacher told Reuters.
Both women stressed that "he didn't say anything".
"He shot at the door while the children were sleeping," the second teacher said.
"He used his feet to kick the window, then he shot at the door. I thought he got inside. I ran into the kitchen behind. I was in shock, I didn't know what to do."
It comes as heartbreaking photos show rescue personnel counting coffins carrying victims' bodies at a hospital morgue in Udon Thani.
Following the attack, Panya, 34, went home and killed his wife and child before taking his own life, police said.
Former policeman Panya Khamrab. Photo / AP
Armed with a shotgun, pistol and knife, Panya opened fire on the childcare centre at about 12.30pm local time.
He then broke into a locked room and stabbed the sleeping children to death. Some were as young as two years old.
National Police Chief Damrongsak Kittiprapat told a news conference the gunman had killed 37 people, including 23 children and his own family, and wounded 12 others.
Nanthicha Punchum, acting chief of the nursery, described harrowing scenes as the attacker barged into the building in rural Uthai Sawan district.
"There were some staff eating lunch outside the nursery and the attacker parked his car and shot four of them dead," she told AFP.
Panya, who had served as an officer for 10 years, was sacked from the police in January this year after being caught with pills containing meth and caffeine, reports said.
First responders attend to a victim at the site of an attack at a daycare centre. Photo / AP
He had previously been warned for drug use. Colleagues claimed he had mood swings and was not popular at work.
Panya was said to have pulled a pistol on a bank manager who found him asleep, parked outside his bank when he was supposed to be guarding it, The Nation Thailand reported.
He was also said to have argued with his wife after he supposedly had an affair, and was reported to have argued with a neighbour after having raucous house parties.
Damrongsak said the pistol used had been purchased legally and was a privately owned weapon, not police property.
Witness Paweena Purichan, 31, said the attacker was well known in the area as a drug addict.
She told AFP she encountered Panya driving erratically as he fled the scene.
The daycare centre sits empty a day after it was attacked by a lone assailant in the town of Nongbua Lamphu. Photo / AP
"The attacker rammed a motorbike into two people who were injured. I sped off to get away from him," she said. "There was blood everywhere."
Video Paweena posted online showed a woman lying injured in a roadside bush after apparently being knocked off her motorbike by Panya.
Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha ordered the national police chief to "fast-track an investigation" and said he would travel to the scene of the attack on Friday.
"This should not happen. This absolutely should not happen," Prayut told reporters.
"I am extremely sorry for those who were injured and lost [their loved ones]."
A government spokesman said flags would fly at half-mast on Friday to honour those killed in the attack.
Thailand forms part of Southeast Asia's so-called Golden Triangle, which has long been an infamous hotspot for the trafficking and abuse of drugs.
Surging supplies of methamphetamine have sent street prices crashing in Thailand to all-time lows, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The White House said the United States is "horrified" by the shooting, while UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was shocked and saddened and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.
The mass killing comes less than a month after an army officer shot dead two colleagues at a military training base in the capital Bangkok.
While Thailand has high rates of gun ownership, mass shootings are rare. But in the past year, there have been at least two other cases of shooting murders by serving soldiers, according to local media.
In 2020, in one of the kingdom's deadliest incidents in recent years, a soldier gunned down 29 people in a 17-hour rampage and wounded scores more before he was shot dead by commandos.
That mass shooting, linked to a debt dispute between gunman Sergeant-Major Jakrapanth Thomma and a senior officer, triggered public anger against the military.
The soldier was able to steal assault rifles from an army depot before embarking on his killing spree, posting live updates on social media as he did so.
Military top brass were at pains to portray the killer as a rogue soldier.
"I am shocked to hear of the horrific events in Thailand this morning. My thoughts are with all those affected and the first responders," British Prime Minister Liz Truss tweeted.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tweeted it was "impossible to comprehend the heartbreak of this horrific news".
