Bangkok mall shooting
(Shir Lang)
Israeli authorities said they were probing whether Israelis were hurt in a shooting attack in a Bangkok mall. Thai police on Tuesday said they had arrested a 14-year-old suspected gunman after a shooting at a luxury mall in the capital Bangkok that emergency services said had killed at least four people and injured four others.
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The Metropolitan Police Detective Department said on its Facebook page that a 14-year-old suspected gunman had been arrested and was being questioned over the incident at the Siam Paragon mall. Emergency services shared an image of a police officer apprehending and handcuffing an individual lying face down on the floor.
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Emergency teams treat a man injured during a shooting attack in a Bangkok mall
(Photo: Thai rescue workers association/Handout via REUTERS)
Unverified videos shared on social media showed people, including children, running out of the doors of the Siam Paragon Mall while security guards ushered them out. One of the videos showed people taking cover in a darkened room inside a restaurant, while live television showed long queues of traffic outside the mall in torrential rain.
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People run out of a Bangkok mall during a shooting attack
(Photo: Sirachai Arunrugstichai / Getty Images)
An Israeli tourist in Bangkok who was at the mall at the time of the attack said she saw people running in fear. "At first we thought they were trying to chase some celebrity but then realized that was not the case, and quickly began running as well. When we tried to ask what had happened, we could only understand someone who said "shooting," One tourist told Ynet.
It's a terrible feeling and I'm glad to be back at the hotel. We simply ran in the rain and can now see from our window, the ambulances and police vehicles who created a major traffic jam. I am not leaving the hotel at this point. I'm glad to be returning home, tomorrow," she said.
Gun violence is common in Thailand. An ex-police officer killed 22 children in a nursery last year during a gun-and-knife attack, while in 2020 a soldier shot and killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations in and around the northeastern Thai city of Nakhon Ratchasima.