BANGKOK, Aug 10 (Reuters) – A gunman was arrested after firing shots at a local government office on the outskirts of Thailand’s capital on Monday, officials said, just days after a teenager’s killing rampage at a school in the same province reignited debate over gun control.
The provincial police commander, Major General Dejrapee Kongdee, said the suspected gunman, a former lawmaker, shot at a senior provincial official and his driver and the alleged shooter had been apprehended.
“There were two people wounded, who have been sent to hospital for treatment,” Dejrapee told Reuters.
Nine people have died and over 20 injured after a 14-year-old boy allegedly shot his grandparents and then went on a killing spree on Friday at Debsirin Nonthaburi School, before turning the gun on himself, in Thailand’s deadliest mass shooting event in nearly four years.
Thai school children returned to their classrooms on Monday, some going through metal detectors and other checks, as Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul reiterated his intention to tighten gun controls in the wake of Friday’s school shooting.
(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by John Mair, Martin Petty)
