At least 30 people have been killed in a shooting at a daycare center in Thailand.
The victims included 22 children, some as young as two years old, as well as adults, authorities said, adding that the gunman was a former police officer.
A manhunt was initially launched to catch the assailant, who fled the scene shooting at spectators and driving them away in his vehicle.
Authorities later said the gunman had killed himself after shooting his wife and son.
The shooting took place in the town of Uthai Sawan in the northeastern province of Nong Bua Lamphu.
At least a dozen other people were injured in the attack, authorities said.
According to the Bangkok Post, the gunman was said to be armed with guns and knives and opened fire at the center after forcing his way in around lunchtime.
Armed with a knife, he then entered a locked room where children were sleeping, district officer Jidapa Boonsom said, to continue his attack.
There were about 30 children inside the entire building at the time, he said.
The gunman first shot four or five members of staff, including a teacher who was eight months pregnant, before attacking the sleeping youngsters.
“At first, people thought they were fireworks,” he said.
Videos posted on social media showed emergency services at the scene and sheets covering what appeared to be the bodies of children at the center.
The gunman was fired from the police force last year after failing a drug test, district police chief Chakkraphat Wichitvaidya told reporters.
He was facing trial and had been in court on a drug charge hours before the hit-and-run, and had appeared agitated when he arrived at the children’s center.
The suspect was last seen driving a white pickup truck with Bangkok license plates.
The Daily News reported that the assailant returned to his home where he killed his wife and child, before taking his own life.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha described the attack as a shocking incident in a Facebook post and alerted all agencies to take action.
The country’s worst previous mass shooting involved a disgruntled soldier who opened fire at a shopping mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima in 2020, killing 29 people.