A 14-year-old boy killed his grandparents before shooting dead five people at a school in Thailand on Friday, in what authorities described as a planned attack by a bullied teenager.

The teenager first shot his two grandparents using his grandfather’s registered handgun at their home, then travelled to Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province, bordering Bangkok, where he killed five school staff members, national police said in a statement.

The 14-year-old also died at the scene. A police official told AFP he had killed himself.

Officials initially reported eight deaths, including the suspect, and said students were among the victims. The death toll was later revised to seven fatalities plus the shooter.

Witness accounts from school

Dozens of police and emergency responders gathered outside the cordoned-off school, whilst parents waited to collect their children and tearful students and staff comforted each other.

“I was afraid that I would die, and I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to pursue my dreams,” said Pawarisa Maylissa, a grade 12 student who hopes to attend medical school.

“I heard many gunshots very loudly because it seemed the suspect was on the floor directly above us,” she told AFP.

Purin Khumchoo (17) said he was among the students who had nearly been shot.

“He was my junior, but I had a feeling he was a troubled kid. My group of friends who knew him said he was interested in the FBI and guns, and he was bullied by many other students,” Purin told AFP outside his school.

“When I saw him aiming the gun at me, I thought he looked very professional, as if he had been trained for a long time.”

Planned attack by stressed student

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters at the scene police had interrogated the suspect’s close friend who said the teenager had been under stress related to his schooling.

“His actions also suggested he had clearly planned” the assault, Anutin added.

“The gun was a registered firearm and was kept at a house, but somehow he gained access to it.”

More than 30 people were injured, with around nine in critical condition, the prime minister said.

Photos published by local media show the suspect wearing a purple school uniform and carrying a black cross-body bag, with several bullet casings visible on the ground.

Thongchai Thanakat, a motorcycle-taxi driver who has worked in the area for 20 years, said he was waiting to pick up passengers outside the school when he heard more than 10 gunshots and saw a stream of students rushing out.

“Some of them weren’t even wearing shoes,” he told AFP.

Security and gun law concerns

Education Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong pledged to provide mental health assistance to students and increase security measures at educational institutions.

“We haven’t checked whether students have brought weapons to school. Our level of security is not that tight,” he told reporters at the school.

Anutin earlier called the shooting “a terrible incident”, asking: “How could this happen in our country?”

Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the region, with around 10 million firearms estimated to be in circulation, one for every seven inhabitants.

Past promises of tightening gun laws have not prevented repeated shootings.

Thai police shot and arrested a teenager who opened fire at a school in the south of the country in February, killing the principal and wounding two students. The teen had stabbed a police officer with a knife, stolen his pistol and then used the weapon in the shooting. A local police chief said at the time the suspect had been discharged from psychiatric hospitalisation.

In 2022, an ex-policeman armed with a gun and a knife stormed into a nursery in the country’s north, killing 24 children and 12 adults in one of Thailand’s deadliest massacres.