A former police officer facing drug-related charges stormed a daycare center in Thailand on Thursday, killing scores of preschoolers and some teachers and shooting more people as he fled. At least 36 people were killed in the worst mass shooting in the nation’s history.
The attacker, who had been fired from the police this year, took his own life after also murdering his wife and son at home.
The photographs taken by emergency personnel who attended the scene showed the bodies of children on the floor, wrapped in their blankets in the place where they were taking their siesta when they were killed. The infants had knife wounds to their faces and bullet wounds to their heads, amid pools of blood, according to the images.
instant kills
A teacher told public broadcaster Thai PBS that the assailant got out of a vehicle and immediately shot dead a man eating lunch outside the nursery, then fired more shots. When she paused to reload her weapon, the teacher took advantage and ran inside.
“I ran to the back, the children were asleep,” said the woman, who did not give her name, with a lump in her throat. “The children were between 2 and 3 years old.”
