Gunman kills five in Bangkok before shooting himself
BANGKOK: A gunman killed five people at a market in Thailand's capital Bangkok on Monday, attacking security guards and a merchant before fatally turning the gun on himself, a Thai police official said. The gunman initially killed three security guards, and then a fourth with whom he had a personal quarrel, Siam Bunsom, commander-in-chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau said.
'He reloaded and ran into the market, killing a female merchant and injuring another,' Siam told reporters. 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 Or Tor Kor Market. Duangnapa Yeerunsiri, 38, who was at the market to buy groceries with her boyfriend and sister, was about to leave when she heard the shots ringing out.
'He fired many shots in rapid succession,' she said, referring to the gunman. 'So we ducked down in the car and quickly called the police.' No tourists were killed or injured, said Sanong Saengmani, a police official in Bangkok's Bang Sue district, where the market, which mainly sells agricultural produce, is located.
Tourism is a key economic driver in Thailand, Southeast Asia's second largest economy, where growth has been sluggish and such incidents can potentially dampen sentiment. Gun violence and gun ownership are not uncommon in Thailand. 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. A year earlier, a former police officer killed 36 people, including 22 children, in a gun-and-knife attack at a nursery in eastern Thailand. – Reuters
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kuwait Times
a day ago
- Kuwait Times
Trump's crackdown leaves migrants in Los Angeles on brink of homelessness
LA's homeless population, currently at 72,000, risks rising again: Mayor BUENA PARK, US: When her husband was arrested in an immigration raid near Los Angeles last month, Martha was abruptly separated from the father of her two daughters. But she also lost the salary that allowed her to keep a roof over their heads. 'He's the pillar of the family... he was the only one working,' said the undocumented woman, using a pseudonym for fear of reprisals. 'He's no longer here to help us, to support me and my daughters.' Los Angeles, where one-third of residents are immigrants—and several hundred thousand people are undocumented—has been destabilized by intensifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids under the Trump administration. Since returning to power, US President Donald Trump has delivered on promises to launch a wide-ranging deportation drive, targeting undocumented migrants but also ensnaring many others in its net. After her husband's arrest, 39-year-old Martha has joined the ranks of people barely managing to avoid ending up on the streets of Los Angeles County—a region with prohibitively high housing prices, and the largest number of homeless people in the United States outside New York. Her 700-square-foot apartment in Buena Park, a suburb of the California metropolis, costs $2,050 per month. After her husband's arrest, she urgently found a minimum-wage night job in a factory to cover their most pressing needs. It pays just enough to keep them afloat, but has left Martha unable to cover a range of obligations. 'I have to pay car insurance, phone, rent, and their expenses,' she said, pointing to her six- and seven-year-old daughters, who need school supplies for the new academic year. 'That's a lot of expenses.' How long can she keep up this punishing schedule, which allows her barely three hours of sleep on returning from the factory before having to wake and look after her daughters? 'I couldn't tell you,' she said, staring blankly into space. Los Angeles has seen some of the worst of the ICE raids. Squads of masked agents have targeted hardware stores, car washes and bus stops, arresting more than 2,200 people in June. About 60 percent of these had no prior criminal records, according to internal ICE documents analyzed by AFP. Trump's anti-immigration offensive is taking an added toll on Latino workers, who were already among the worst-affected victims of the region's housing crisis, said Andrea Gonzalez, deputy director of the CLEAN Carwash Workers Center, a labor rights non-profit. 'A bigger storm is brewing. It's not just about the people that got picked up, it's about the people that are left behind as well,' she said. 'There is a concern that people are going to end up on the streets.' Her organization is helping more than 300 struggling households whose incomes have plummeted, either because a family member has been arrested or because they are too afraid to return to work. It has distributed more than $30,000 to help around 20 families who are unable to afford their rent, but covering everyone's needs is simply 'not sustainable,' said Gonzalez. Local Democratic Party leaders are trying to establish financial aid for affected families. Los Angeles County is planning a dedicated fund to tackle the problem, and city officials will also launch a fund using philanthropic donations rather than taxpayer money. Some families should receive 'a couple hundred' dollars, Mayor Karen Bass said last month. But for Gonzalez, these initiatives do not 'even scratch the surface' of what is needed, representing less than 10 percent of most affected families' rent requirements. She called for a 'moratorium on evictions' similar to one introduced during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Otherwise, Los Angeles' homeless population—currently numbered at 72,000, which is down slightly in the past two years—risks rising again, she warned. 'What we're living through right now is an emergency,' said Gonzalez. Maria Martinez's undocumented immigrant husband was arrested in June at a carwash in Pomona, a suburb east of Los Angeles. Since then, the 59-year-old has had to rely on help from her children to pay her $1,800 monthly rent. Her $1,000 disability allowance falls far short. 'It is stressful,' she said. 'We're just getting by.' – AFP
Kuwait Times
2 days ago
- Kuwait Times
Russia strikes kill 25 in Ukraine as Kremlin notes Trump ultimatum
Moscow says it wants peace in Ukraine hours after mounting heavy attacks KYIV, Ukraine: Russia said on Tuesday that it wanted peace in Ukraine, hours after mounting attacks that killed at least 25 people, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates. The strikes came just hours after US President Donald Trump shortened his deadline for Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine—now into a fourth year—or face new sanctions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of willfully targeting a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region—that Russia claims as its own—killing 16 people and wounding dozens others. 'It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility,' Zelensky said on social media in response. The Kremlin denied the claim. 'The Russian army does not strike civilian targets,' spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from AFP. The attacks came hours after Trump said he was cutting the deadline for President Vladimir Putin to halt the Ukraine war from 50 days to 10-12 days. 'I really felt it was going to end. But every time I think it's going to end he kills people,' Trump said Monday on a visit to Scotland. 'I'm not so interested in talking (to him) anymore,' he added. Peskov said Moscow had 'taken note' of Trump's new deadline and that it remained 'committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests.' Ukraine's justice ministry said Russian forces hit the prison in Bilenke with four glide bombs. Police said 16 inmates were killed and 43 wounded. Bricks and debris and blown out windows were strewn on the ground, according to images released by the ministry. The facility's perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added. Rescue workers searched for survivors in pictures released by the region's emergency services. A senior Ukrainian source said that 274 people were serving sentences in the Bilenkivska facility. The source added there were no Russian war prisoners at the centre. Nadiya, a resident of Bilenke, told AFP the attack damaged her house. 'At about ten minutes to six, a neighbour called and said: 'Come quickly, your roof is gone.' Is that normal? Not a single window is intact,' the 74-year-old said. The Ukrainian air force said that Russia also launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defense systems had downed 32 of the drones. One attack targeted a hospital in the town of the Kamyanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region, wounding 22 people. 'Putin is rejecting a ceasefire, avoiding a leaders' meeting, and prolonging the war,' Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media. 'He will only end his terror if we break the spine of his economy,' he added, calling on Western allies to consolidate around sanctions on Moscow. 'Three people were killed in the attack, including a pregnant woman. Her name was Diana. She was only 23-years-old,' Zelensky said. Separate strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia killed six people, regional authorities said. In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region's acting governor said. Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia's summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in 2022. The Russian defense ministry claimed fresh advances across the front line on Tuesday, saying its forces had taken two more villages—one in the Donetsk region, and another in Zaporizhzhia region. The prison strike on Tuesday came on the third anniversary of an attack on another detention facility in occupied Ukrainian territory that Kyiv blamed on Moscow and was reported to have killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers. Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the night-time strike three years ago on the Olenivka detention centre in Russian-occupied Donetsk region, which the Kremlin says is part of Russia. Ukraine says dozens of its soldiers who laid down their arms after a long Russian siege of the port city of Mariupol were killed in the attack. – AFP
Arab Times
2 days ago
- Arab Times
Thailand returns 2 wounded soldiers to Cambodia but continues to hold 18 of their comrades
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Aug 2, (AP): Cambodia on Friday welcomed the return of two wounded soldiers who had been captured by the Thai army after the two sides had already implemented a ceasefire to end five days of combat over competing territorial claims. Their repatriation comes amid accusations and bickering over whether either side had targeted civilians and breached the laws of war, and sharp nationalist feuding on social media. The rest of a 20-member group of Cambodian soldiers captured on Tuesday in one of the disputed pockets of land over which the two sides were fighting remain in Thai hands, and Cambodian officials are demanding their release. The two countries have given differing accounts of the circumstances of the capture. Cambodian officials say their soldiers approached the Thai position with friendly intentions to offer post-fighting greetings, while Thai officials said the Cambodians appeared to have hostile intent and entered what Thailand considers its territory, so were taken prisoner. Cambodian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Maly Socheata confirmed that the two wounded soldiers had been handed over at a border checkpoint between Thailand's Surin province and Cambodia's Oddar Meanchey province, and urged the Thai side to promptly repatriate the remaining personnel in accordance with "international humanitarian law.' Thailand says it has been following international legal procedures and was holding the remaining 18 soldiers until it could investigate their actions. A statement issued Friday by Thailand's 2nd Army Region identified the two repatriated Cambodian soldiers as a sergeant with a broken arm and a gash on his hip, and a second lieutenant who appeared to be suffering from battle fatigue and needed care from his family. It said both men had taken an oath not to engage in further hostilities against Thailand. Neither man nor the others in Thai custody have been made available for interviews by neutral third parties. The Cambodian Human Rights Committee, which is a government agency, released a letter addressed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights claiming that the two soldiers had been tortured and denied medical care. The letter, which offered no evidence to back up its claims, demanded among other measures an "impartial investigation by the United Nations or relevant international bodies' into its allegations.
