A gunman shot and killed five people at a popular fresh food market in the Thai capital on Monday before killing himself, police said.
The victims included security guards at the Or Tor Kor market in the district of Chatuchak in Bangkok, according to a police statement. The Erawan Medical Centre, which coordinates emergency medical services, reported two women were also wounded.
Located adjacent to the expansive Chatuchak Weekend Market, this market offers a wide variety of products and attracts both Thai locals and tourists from around the globe.
A video circulating online reportedly showed the shooter wearing a baseball cap and shorts walking in the market with a backpack strapped to his chest and a handgun in his right hand.
Police said they were probing details about the suspect, including his motivation.
Police General Kitrat Phanphet, chief of the national police force, said he has ordered city police to carry out their investigation quickly and gather all evidence, including closed-circuit video footage.
Gun violence is not unusual in Thailand, which has fairly restrictive laws but also a high level of gun ownership.
The last mass shooting incident in Bangkok was in October 2023 when a teenage boy, using a modified blank pistol, shot more than half a dozen people at the Paragon shopping mall in the city’s main shopping district, killing three.
One of the country’s worst mass killings occurred in October 2022 in the north-eastern province of Nong Bua Lamphua, when a police sergeant who had lost his job used guns and knives to kill 36 people, including two dozen toddlers at a daycare centre.
In February 2020, a disgruntled Thai army soldier shot and killed 29 people, most at a shopping mall in the north-eastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, before he was killed by police after an 18-hour standoff.
