BANGKOK – At least six people were killed and one other person was wounded in a shooting at a popular fresh food market near Bangkok’s famed Chatuchak bazaar on July 28, police said.
“Police are investigating the identity of the person and the motive for the incident,” Thai police said in a statement. The five people killed by the gunman were security guards at the market, it said.
The fatalities include the gunman, who took his own life, Mr Charin Gopatta, Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, told Reuters.
“Police are investigating the motive. So far it’s a mass shooting,” Mr Worapat Sukthai, deputy police chief of Bangkok’s Bang Sue district, where the incident took place, told AFP.
He said the suspect took his own life after the shooting and police were working to identify him, as well as investigating “for any possible link” to the current border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia.
The authorities said the fatalities include the gunman, who took his own life.
PHOTO: THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
No tourists were killed or injured in the shooting incident, said Mr Sanong Saengmani, a police official in Bangkok’s Bang Sue district, where the market is located.
Tourism is a key economic driver in Thailand, South-east Asia’s second-largest economy, where growth has been sluggish and such incidents can potentially dampen sentiment.
Or Tor Kor market, where the attack took place, is a short distance from Chatuchak market. The market, which sells agricultural produce and local food, is a major tourist destination in Bangkok which throngs with visitors every weekend.
In video footage shared by police, a suspect in a white hat and a backpack slung on his chest is seen walking through a parking lot at the market.
Mass shootings are common in Thailand, where firearms can be obtained relatively easily due to lax gun control enforcement.
In October 2023, a 14-year-old suspect used a modified handgun to kill two people and injure five others at a luxury mall in central Bangkok. In 2022, a former police officer killed 36 people, including 22 children, in a gun-and-knife attack at a nursery in eastern Thailand. AFP, REUTERS
