Police in Thailand say that they have killed a gunman and rescued eight hostages after a deadly mass-shooting at a shopping mall in the country’s north-east.
Per reports from Reuters, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul confirmed that the gunman had been killed at the Terminal 21 shopping mall in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima.
ABC News quotes a local security source who said that eight hostages were also rescued, some of them wounded. Police have confirmed the identity of the shooter, saying that he was a soldier, aged 32.
The man reportedly killed two people in a home, then moved on to an army camp and finally the shopping mall, posting messages on social media as he went.
Facebook has since removed the man’s account, saying there is “no place” on the platform for people who commit this kind of atrocity.
Thailand is currently celebrating the Buddhist festival of Māgha Pūjā, so the mall was crowded with shoppers who were enjoying the long weekend.
The official death toll from the attack is 20, down from the figure of 21 that had earlier been reported. 42 people are wounded, and of those, 21 remain in hospital, and the others have gone home.
Kongcheep Tantrawanit of the Thai Defense Ministry said of the shooter: “We don’t know why he did this. It appears he went mad.”
