Thailand shooting: 26 killed in a frenzy of gunfire

Thai gunman Jakrapanth Thomma sought and received a social media audience for the massacre to come.

One of the escapees from Terminal 21 in Korat on Sunday. Picture: AP

“I’m tired now. I can’t lift my finger anymore,” Thai gunman Jakrapanth Thomma says in a video uploaded to Facebook early on Saturday night as he seeks an audience for the massacre to come.

At 7pm, there is another Facebook post. “Should I surrender?”

Ten people are already dead and dozens lying injured inside the Terminal 21 shopping mall in Thailand’s northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima (also known as Korat) about 250km from Bangkok, by the time the 32-year-old army sergeant major in helmet and full battle gear consults his anonymous audience.

The weekend was a holiday in Thailand to mark the Magha Puja festival — a time when Buddhists across Southeast Asia seek to ­purify their minds, do only good deeds, and commit no sins. But Jakraphanth is not done killing.

It is almost 9pm by the time Facebook shuts down Jakrapanth’s account, and when it does it issues a pointless statement of ­regret. “Our hearts go out to the victims, their families and the community affected by this tragedy in Thailand. There is no place on Facebook for people who commit this kind of atrocity, nor do we allow people to praise or support this attack.”

It will be another 12 hours ­before Thai police commandos and an army special forces unit ­finally storm the cavernous five-storey mall and shoot him dead. By Sunday afternoon it is clear that the munitions expert has killed 26 people and injured 57 more, several of them members of the Thai security forces.

The dead include a motorcycle taxi driver, a cab driver, and a high school student, according to ­reports from the scene.

Jakrapanth Thomma. Picture: AFP

But it turns out Facebook is not the only medium feeding his frenzy.

Throughout the night, live broadcasts show CCTV of the stocky man swaggering through a deserted mall. Later footage shows hundreds of terrified shoppers being evacuated with their hands in the air. Some, bloodied and injured, are carried out by police.

Just as it did during the deadly 2008 Mumbai siege, the 24-hour news cycle with its breathless live TV and internet news updates from journalists on the scene was inadvertently feeding information to the frenzied gunman.

Briton John Fielding was among the thousands caught in Terminal 21 when the gunman ­entered the mall and he described the experience to the BBC. “All of a sudden people started running away and screaming and panicking so I immediately ran for cover and hid behind a pillar. Luckily I was right next to a restaurant so I quickly ran in, shut the door and pretty much was inside there for about five hours,” he said.

All around the mall terrified people hid where they could — in bathroom cubicles, boutique fitting rooms and under tables. For those five hours he sheltered in a shopping mall restaurant, Mr Fielding watched the massacre unfold on his smart phone. “It was really horrible. I could see pictures of people he had shot, which were circulating around the internet so I knew at least 20 people had been killed, I knew he had assault rifles, and grenades and hostages and I knew he was on the fourth floor, which is where I was hiding.”

Some lessons, at least, were learned from the November 2008 Mumbai massacre in which 174 people were killed and more than 300 wounded by Pakistani terrorists who were receiving updates on their phones from handlers monitoring the internet and cable news channel broadcasts.

Before midnight, the Thai military orders news outlets to stop live coverage as security forces work to evacuate the building from the ground floor up.

“We don’t know why he did this. It ­appears he went mad,” ­defence ministry spokesman Kongcheep Tantrawanit said after the massacre.

But Jakrapanth left a few clues in rambling Facebook posts that suggest he was under financial pressure, and that he may have been in dispute with his commanding officer. “Getting rich from corruption and taking advantage of other people, do they think they can bring money with them to spend in hell?” said one.

His first victims were his commanding officer, Anantharot Krasae, 48, Anantharot’s 63-year-old mother-in-law, Anong Mitchan and another soldier. Colonel Anantharot and his mother-in-law were shot inside his house on the Suatham Phithak Military Camp, where Jakrapanth, a champion shooter, also lived.

Armed commando soldiers carry a person out of Terminal 21 Korat mall. Picture: AP

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-Cha said on Sunday the junior soldier was angry over a land deal in which he felt he had been cheated. Some Thai media reported Jakrapanth had taken out a loan from his commanding officer.

“It is unprecedented in Thailand and I want this to be the last time this crisis happens,” Prayuth said outside a hospital where ­victims were being treated.

A senior military officer told The Australian it was not unusual for a low-ranking soldier to borrow money from a superior and that financial stress and domestic violence was common within the ranks of non-commissioned officers. Most earn an average 15,000 Baht ($700) a month and have not seen a pay rise in eight years, ­despite an escalating cost of living.

“I am a commanding officer and every month, maybe every week, I have men come to me and ask me for financial help. Last week one told me he did not have money for his kids to go to school so I had to give him money from my own pocket,” said the officer, who asked for anonymity.

“A lot of low-ranking officers feel under pressure. Even as a commanding officer, my salary is not enough for me to raise my kid.”

Thailand has a thriving black market in firearms but Jakrapanth managed to steal his weapons from his barracks, along with two grenades and 700 rounds of ammunition, before driving an army jeep into the town centre where he fired indiscriminately into the crowd before moving on to Terminal 21.

Thailand’s powerful military, which continues to pull the levers of Thai politics, will have to answer for that in coming days.

Police say Jakrapanth held eight hostages for several hours on the fourth floor of the mall, as ­security forces tried to flush him out first with persuasion — his distraught mother was brought in to try and talk her son into surrendering — and then with bullets.

Most people were freed by the early hours of Sunday when the gunman retreated to the basement, but it was not until 9am that police commandos dispatched from Bangkok, backed by an army special forces unit, ended the 17-hour siege.

Many malls in Thailand, including Terminal 21’s namesake in Bangkok, have metal detectors and security cameras at entrances manned by unarmed security guards. Checks on those entering are often cursory at best.

The nation has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world.

Additional reporting: Agencies