BANGKOK — A soldier suspected of killing at least 21 people during a shooting rampage in northeastern Thailand was shot and killed Sunday, Thai officials said.
The alleged gunman, Sgt. Jakrapanth Thomma, shot and killed a soldier and a woman at a military barracks in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima before turning his attention to a nearby mall, said police spokesman Kissana Phathanacharoen.
Investigators believe a dispute over a land deal payment may have prompted the shooting, Phathanacharoen added.
Thomma escaped in a military Humvee and opened fire at a number of different locations throughout the city, police said. He then holed up in a shopping mall for more than 10 hours after the attack began, police in Thailand told NBC News.
Of those killed, 16 died on the spot, Thailand’s Ministry of Health announced. Another 31 were injured, with four undergoing emergency surgery and another six placed in intensive care.
As the standoff moved into early Sunday morning local time, bursts of automatic gunfire were heard from inside the shopping mall when Thai security forces suddenly rushed in to free hundreds of people who had been trapped inside.
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“We don’t know why he did this. It appears he went mad,” defense ministry spokesman Lt. Gen Kongcheep Tantrawanit said.
Video taken outside the mall and shared on social media showed people taking cover in a parking lot as gunshots were fired. Authorities continued to try to arrest the gunman and rescue shoppers inside as the time pushed into Sunday morning in Thailand.
From within the mall, Thomma taunted police and the internet as he intermittently posted photos of himself holding various weapons or shared memes with threatening messages on his Facebook page. His account was eventually removed by the social media company.
“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,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.
Thailand’s minister of public health said his agency had brought together more than 100 doctors and nurses to help the injured. He said they have 1,700 units of blood.
“I’ve made sure that all medical staff and units are trying their best to help those injured. I urge the public to not share photos of the incident and refrain from commenting,” Minister of Health Anutin Charnvirakul said in a statement.
The U.S. State Department put out a warning of an active shooter at a shopping mall in Nakhon Ratchasima, and advising to avoid the area.
The incident comes just a month after another high-profile mall shooting, in the central Thai city of Lopburi. In that case, a masked gunman carrying a handgun with a silencer killed three people, including a 2-year-old boy, and wounded four others as he robbed a jewelry store.
A suspect, a school director, was arrested less than two weeks later and reportedly confessed, saying he did not mean to shoot anyone.
Nat Sumon reported from Bangkok, Isobel van Hagen reported from London, and Phil McCausland reported from New York.
Alicia Victoria Lozano, Janine Phakdeetham and Reuters contributed.