The soldier who gunned down 26 people before being shot dead by commandos in northeastern Thailand did it over a “personal problem”, Thai premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha said Sunday.
“It is unprecedented in Thailand, and I want this to be the last time this crisis happens,” he said outside a hospital where victims were sent after they were evacuated from the shopping mall where the 17-hour rampage took place.
The former army chief added a “personal problem” over the sale of a house was what sparked the soldier’s rampage, which began on Saturday afternoon near an army barracks and was for several hours relayed by the gunman via Facebook posts.
“No one can escape death,” read one of the gunman’s posts.
Another asked, “Should I give up?”
In a later post, he wrote, “I have stopped already.”
“This was not carelessness. We don’t leave the arsenal depot alone – we had people guarding it,” Prayut said.
Most of the dead were killed in and around the mall.
Evacuees recounted how an ordinary Saturday at the shopping centre descended into horror as the gunman entered, sparking an hours-long ordeal.
“It was like a dream … I’m grateful I survived,” Sottiyanee Unchalee, 48, told AFP, explaining she hid in the toilet of a gym inside the mall as she heard the gunfire.
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