JAKARTA - Thai security forces on Sunday, January 9, shot dead a soldier who went on a rampage at a shopping center in Nakhon Ratchasima, in the northeastern city. This attempt was made to end his actions that carried out the shooting and killed 20 people.
Reported by Reuters, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul confirmed that the soldier was shot dead at the Terminal 21 mall in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima. The perpetrator was a 32 year old soldier named Jakrapanth Thomma.
“Thank you police and army for ending the situation. Dead shooters are shot !!! " said Anutin Charnvirakul said in a post on Facebook. Police and soldiers also said he had been killed.
Thai media said the suspected shooter had worked at the military base in Nakhon Ratchasima, which is about 250 km (155 miles) from the capital Bangkok.
Ministry of Defense spokesman Kongcheep Tantrawanit did not know why Jakrapanth had taken this action. "It looks like he's gone crazy," Kongcheep told Reuters.
He added that it was unclear how many visitors and workers were inside the shopping center after soldiers and police evacuated there.
"It was scary because I could hear the occasional gunshot ... we waited for the police to come to our aid, long enough, for hours," said a visitor to the mall, Suvanarat Jirattanasakul, 27, whose voice trembled during an interview.
The mall was busy with visitors, as it was a long weekend for the Buddhist Makha Bucha holiday.
CCTV footage from inside the mall posted on social media shows a gunman dressed in black and wearing a mask, his gun slung over his shoulder in the absence of anyone else. He walked in the mall.
Meanwhile, the suspect's social media account has been deleted by Facebook. "There is no place on Facebook for people to commit this kind of atrocity, nor do we allow people to praise or support such attacks," a Facebook representative said in a statement.
Shooting like this is rare in a Southeast Asian country. Actions like this usually occur in several countries in Southeast Asia that have rebel groups.
Nakhon Ratchasima is one of the largest cities in northeast Thailand, a relatively prosperous island in a rice-growing area that is one of the poorest parts of a country of 69 million people.
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