Thailand childcare centre attack: What we know

A former police officer wielding a shotgun, a pistol and a knife has gone on the rampage at a childcare centre in Thailand.

The vicious attack - in Nong Bua Lamphu province - has shocked the country and many are asking: why?

The attacker stormed the centre in the town of Uthai Sawan, 500km (310 miles) north-east of Bangkok, at about 12:30 local time (05:30 GMT) on Thursday.

One of the teachers at the centre told local media they thought the man wanted something - after all, they knew him because his son attended the same centre, even though he had not been there for a month.

Carers tried to lock the doors, but the man proceeded to attack indiscriminately.

"The shooter came in around lunchtime and shot four or five officials at the childcare centre first," district official Jidapa Boonsom told Reuters news agency.

"At first, people thought it was fireworks," she said.

The attacker, she added, then forced his way into a locked room where children were sleeping, stabbing them. Only one is said to have survived.

A teacher who managed to escape described the knife "like one for cutting grass - it was curved".

From there, the man fled as police were alerted and launched a manhunt.

AFP news agency quotes an eyewitness who was riding a motorcycle to her shop when she saw him driving away erratically.

"The attacker rammed a motorbike and two people were injured. I sped off to get away from him," Paweena Purichan said, adding, "There was blood everywhere."

He fled the scene in a white four-door Toyota pick-up truck with Bangkok registration plates and went home, where he killed himself, his wife and their son, police said.

The number of fatalities is at least 38, including 23 children. Some of the children were as young as two.

A number of them were care centre staff, including some killed as they were having lunch outside the nursery and others who tried to lock the man out.

Other adults - and at least one of the children - were killed as the attacker fled from the scene.

At least 12 people have been wounded.

He has been named as Panya Khamrab, 34. His motive remains unclear.

The 9mm pistol he had used had been obtained legally, police said. But he had mostly used his knife to kill the children, they added.

The police sergeant was suspended from the force over drug use in January and dismissed in June, National Police Chief Damrongsak Kittiprapat told reporters.

Khamrab had attended a court hearing on a charge of use and possible trade in methamphetamine early on Thursday before carrying out the attack. The verdict was scheduled to be delivered on Friday.

Damrongsak said the attacker had been in a manic state, but it was unknown whether it was drug-related.

"We have to test his blood for drugs," he said.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha described the shooting as "a shocking event".

Mass shootings in the country are rare, although gun ownership rates are relatively high, and illegal weapons are also common, according to the Reuters news agency.

The nursery attack comes less than a month after an army officer shot dead two of his colleagues at a base in Bangkok.

In 2020, a soldier killed 29 people and injured dozens more in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima.