Siam Paragona famous luxury shopping center in Bangkokhas been the scene of the latest fatal shooting in Thailand: A 14-year-old teenager has killed three people and left three others injured. The attacker, who was wearing a black t-shirt, cap and camouflage pants, was arrested by the Police.
“A special operations team sent to the scene pursued the attacker and managed to corner him at the nearby Siam Kempinski Hotel around 5:10 p.m. He left his weapon and surrendered,” reads a statement from the Thai authorities.
The local station Canal 3 reported that, around 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday (local time), at least 10 shots coming from one of the bathrooms in the shopping center, which is located in the capital’s main shopping district. Several videos circulating on social networks show several buyers running out of a place busy with national and foreign tourists.
The elevated walkway that connects Siam Paragon with other shopping centers in the area, as well as the nearest metro station, Siam, which leads directly to the shopping center, were closed. The area was cordoned off by the agents. “I am aware of the shooting in Siam Paragon and have ordered the police to investigate. What worries me most is public safety,” Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin wrote on Twitter (now X).
The shooting occurs a few days before the first anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in recent Thai history, when a former police officer armed with a knife and a gun attacked a daycare center in Nong Bua Lamphu, a province in the northeast of the country, and murdered 24 children and 12 adults. Two years earlier, a soldier was killed after killing 29 people and wounding 52 after barricading himself in for 18 hours on a Saturday afternoon in a crowded shopping center.