Bangkok, Thailand
CNN
—
Police in Thailand arrested a 14-year-old boy, after a shooting at a shopping mall in the capital Bangkok on Tuesday left at least one person and five others injured, the Metropolitan Police Bureau said.
Local authorities held the suspect with a weapon, and are assessing exact casualties, Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau said.
The shooting took place around 5 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) at the Siam Paragon Mall in Bangkok, Police Colonel Noppadol Thiammekha, Pathum Wan Police Chief told CNN on Tuesday.
Bangkok Emergency Center revised an earlier death toll, which stated that three people were killed in the shooting. The director of Bangkok Emergency Center, Dr. Yutthana Setthanan, told reporters he was initially told the death toll was three but later clarified that one person was killed.
Yutthana said the deceased victim died at the mall and is believed to be a Chinese citizen, adding that no child was among the deceased or injured victims. Among the seven people who were shot at the mall, one person died, and five people were seriously injured, Yutthana said, adding that Thai citizens and foreigners were among the injured.
Gun ownership in the Southeast Asian country is high compared with other countries in the region.
More than 10.3 million civilians held firearms in Thailand, or around 15 guns for every 100 people, 2017 data from the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey (SAS) said. About 6.2 million of those guns are legally registered, according to SAS.
Thailand tallies the second-highest gun homicides after the Philippines in Southeast Asia, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s 2019 Global Burden of Disease database.
But mass shootings in the country are rare. In October 2022, at least 36 people were killed in a gun and knife attack at a child care center in northeastern Thailand.
The massacre in Nong Bua Lamphu province was believed to be the country’s deadliest incident of its kind.
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin expressed his “deepest condolences” to the relatives of those died in the shooting.
“I would like to offer my support to the families of the deceased and all those who were injured as well,” the prime minister wrote on X, previously known as Twitter.
