BANGKOK: Thai police shot dead a gunman who killed three people and wounded three others, including a police officer, in Phetchaburi province today, ending a 15-hour standoff.
The 29-year-old man was shot dead at his house at about 4 am.
Commander-in-Chief of Region 7, Pol. Lt. Gen. Thanayut Wutcharatthamrong said the police had cordoned off a house where the gunman has been holding out since 3 pm on Wednesday.
“The police have been persuading him to surrender however he refused. He fought back and fired shots too.
“The police stormed the gunman’s house and took down the gunman who ran into a room on the second floor, ending the 15 hours stand-off,” he told reporters today.
Earlier, the mother of the man has been brought to the scene as well to persuade him to surrender, however, to no avail.
Thanayut said three were killed including two university students aged 22 years and a 27-year-old delivery man while another three were injured in the incident. A special operations officer who was on duty and a leader of the neighbourhood who sought to talk to and convince the suspect were among those hurt.
The gunman had served a six-month probationary period as a national park ranger before being caught.
The incident on Wednesday brings to mind the incident last October where a police sergeant, dismissed from the force for a drug offence, went on a gun and knife rampage at a day-care centre in Nong Bua Lam Phu province killing 36 people, 24 of them children. – BERNAMA-XINHUA
