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Soldier Kills 29 in Thailand Shooting Spree and Dies in Standoff

The soldier shot a superior officer at a military base, then went on a shooting rampage at a mall before he died in the standoff with soldiers and the police, officials said.

Armed soldiers escorting people out of the Terminal 21 mall, on Sunday.Credit...Sakchai Lalitkanjanakul/Associated Press

KORAT, Thailand — A soldier armed with an assault rifle went on a shooting rampage at a military base and a shopping mall in Thailand on Saturday, killing at least 29 people, wounding 58 and posting video on Facebook Live, officials said.

The gunman’s lengthy standoff with authorities ended Sunday morning, when a raid led to a flurry of gunfire that killed him. He died more than 12 hours after arriving in a stolen Humvee from a military base, where he had shot and killed a superior officer.

Security camera footage from the mall showed a young man in camouflage walking past shops with a long gun. Reports from inside described frantic shoppers fleeing, hiding in food court kitchens and behind cash registers, holding their breath and silencing their phones.

“I was really terrified. At that moment, I could not think about anything,” said Kul Kaemthong, a mall cleaner who rushed into a room in the fourth-floor food court with about 40 other people to hide before emerging hours later. “When we heard a gunshot, everybody started running for our lives.”

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Security forces taking cover behind an ambulance near the Terminal 21 mall.Credit...Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters

The shooting and the lengthy siege that ended at 9 a.m. Sunday morning threw this city and country into a panic with all the anxious, gut-wrenching confusion and sorrow that accompanies mass shootings in the United States and acts of terrorism all over the world.

Without a clear motive, with social media again used to spread images of bloodshed, Thailand is now confronting its own version of an emerging global threat: the combination of guns, technology and a killer with access to both who is determined to take the lives of the innocent in a public place once deemed safe.

Nothing so severe is common in Thailand, but in a country of 69 million people with more than 10 million guns, the authorities have been concerned for years about gun violence. Thailand has one of the highest gun homicide rates in Asia, and the episode in Korat comes just a month after a gunman killed three a people at a mall in the central Thai city of Lopburi.

The shooting in Korat — a commercial hub for agriculture in Thailand’s poorest region — stunned officials; one said the gunman “went mad,” creating an extended horror that turned a busy seven-story shopping center into a labyrinth of fear. But the violence started nine miles away, on a military base, around 3 p.m. local time Saturday.

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The Terminal 21 shopping mall is a huge, seven-story complex.Credit...Narong Sangnak/EPA, via Shutterstock

Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Kongcheep Tantravanich said the gunman, named Sgt. Jakkrapanth Thomma, “shot and killed his superior officer” at Suthampitak Army Base in Nakhon Ratchasima Province. “He also shot and injured military officers,” he added.

He then stole a Humvee, shooting at random along his route before entering the mall with several firearms, including an automatic rifle.

Thailand’s prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, said Sunday that the gunman was enraged over a “land problem,” particularly a dispute over a fee payment involving the selling of a house.

Indeed, a Facebook page believed to be connected to Sergeant Jakkrapanth included comments and images suggesting a grudge involving money.

“Getting wealthy from cheating and taking advantage of others,” he said in a comment on the page. “Do they think they can take their money to use in hell?”

The page also showed an image of a young man on Saturday wearing a helmet.

“I’m tired now,” he said at one point. “I can’t move my finger anymore.” The Facebook page was taken down soon after.

Facebook said the suspected gunman’s Facebook and Instagram accounts were both removed.

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Thai rescue workers tend to the injured outside of the Terminal 21 mall. A total of 42 people were injured in the shooting.Credit...Narong Sangnak/EPA, via Shutterstock

The company said it had identified a short, live video posted by the suspected gunman, but a spokeswoman, Sarah Pollack, said it had found no evidence that the violence itself was streamed on Facebook Live.

The company said it was still looking into when the gunman’s video was streamed, adding that it would move to block others from posting the gunman’s video, as well as anyone posting videos that depict the violence itself or support the attack.

The response reflects an effort to combat a tactic used by assailants in other mass shootings.

Last year, an Australian man broadcast his attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on the social network.

Two months later, in May, Facebook announced it would take stronger action in response to those who shared copies of violent videos: It would bar people who did so for up to 30 days on a first offense. Multiple offenses could draw a long-term ban.

But once unleashed, video of the Christchurch attack, which killed 51 people, spread across the internet. And on Saturday, several videos showing the victims and chaos of the Thai gunman’s attack could be seen on the internet forum 4chan.

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Thai soldiers inside the mall on Sunday.Credit...Lillian Suwanrumpha/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In Korat, the operation to apprehend the gunman and clear the mall stretched on for more than 12 hours. Shortly after 8 p.m. local time, the police Crime Suppression Division declared the gunman a most-wanted person and urged the public to call in tips about him.

Of the 57 who were injured, at least four sustained serious injuries, the public health minister, Anutin Charnvirakul said, adding they were undergoing surgery early Sunday.

At one point, early Sunday morning, gunshots could be heard from inside the mall.

As the siege continued into the early morning Sunday, the area around the mall in Korat was cordoned off amid fears that many hundreds of people were trapped inside. Video showed steady streams of people, many carrying small children, fleeing the mall with the help of police and soldiers.

One of those who was evacuated, Somwang Kwangchaithale, said he and his wife were watching a movie in the mall’s fifth-floor theater Saturday night when the lights suddenly went on and an announcement declared there was an emergency.

About 100 people were herded into a locked office, Mr. Somwang said, where they stayed for five hours before a rescuer escorted them down the fire stairs, instructing them to stay low and keep quiet.

As they emerged, gunfire rang out and everyone “started screaming and running for their lives,” said his wife, Viparat Wansaboiy.

“I have never run as fast in my life,” she added. “I could hear the shooting sound and when I turned back all I could see was dust flying, people screaming.”

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As the siege continued past midnight, the area around the mall in Korat was cordoned off amid fears that many hundreds of people were trapped inside.Credit...Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters

Dozens of orange-clad emergency workers set up triage areas near the mall, tending to victims and helping the rescued. Relatives and friends of those believed to be still inside anxiously awaited word of their fate even as they heard a burst of gunfire from inside the mall.

Patcharin Khlairit said she had exchanged messages with her brother, who was trapped along with his wife in the mall’s basement level. “The latest message I received from him was there’s a commando team that are helping them escape through the fire stairs,” she said.

In Thailand, mass shootings are extremely rare.

An exception is in Thailand’s south, where an ethnic Malay Muslim insurgency is battling the majority Buddhist state. In one of the country’s bloodiest episodes in recent memory, gunmen killed at least 15 people in November at a security checkpoint in Yala Province.

The public has far less experience with the kinds of scenes that emerged Saturday night and Sunday. As armed soldiers and police officers ducked for cover and scurried people to safety in Korat, a video clip widely shared on social media captured what appeared to be a shouting match between a civilian in the mall and the gunman.

Little could be seen, but the two traded insults and obscenities — then the gunman fired two rounds.

Muktita Suhartono reported from Korat, Thailand, Ryn Jirenuwat from Bangkok, Damien Cave from Sydney, Australia, and Richard C. Paddock from Denpasar, Indonesia. Davey Alba contributed reporting from New York.

Muktita Suhartono reports for The New York Times in Indonesia and Thailand. She joined The Times in 2018 and is based in Bangkok. More about Muktita Suhartono

Richard C. Paddock has worked as a foreign correspondent in 50 countries on five continents with postings in Moscow, Jakarta, Singapore and Bangkok. He has spent nearly a dozen years reporting on Southeast Asia, which he has covered since 2016 as a contributor to The New York Times. More about Richard C. Paddock

Damien Cave is the bureau chief in Sydney, Australia. He previously reported from Mexico City, Havana, Beirut and Baghdad. Since joining The Times in 2004, he has also been a deputy National editor, Miami bureau chief and a Metro reporter. More about Damien Cave

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 16 of the New York edition with the headline: Thailand Soldier Goes on Shooting Rampage, Killing at Least 20. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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