Thai policeman injured, detained after 24-hour standoff

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BANGKOK — Thai police on Wednesday detained a senior police officer who fired a number of gunshots from his residence in Bangkok, ending a standoff of over 24 hours after his colleagues tried to take him to be handled for psychological sickness.

The gunman, recognized as police Lt. Col. Kitikarn Sangbun was taken to hospital Wednesday for an harm after the ordeal, stated police Lt. Gen. Samran Nualma, an assistant to the police chief. He didn’t specify the character of Kitikarn’s harm and the way it was obtained, however stated no others had been injured.

Police Col. Rangsan Sornsing, superintendent of Sai Mai police station in Bangkok, stated Wednesday that Kitikarn’s crazed episode started Tuesday morning.

“His superior officer was going to take him to be treated at a mental institute but the situation got out of hand,” Rangsan stated.

Kitikarn then fired within the path of police who arrived on the scene, beginning the standoff.

Police evacuated and cordoned off the realm surrounding Kitikarn’s residence as they tried a number of strategies to apprehend him.

Police fired tear gasoline Tuesday evening and Kitikarn reportedly responded by firing a salvo of bullets. On Wednesday morning, a junior officer sang songs for Kitikarn in an try to calm him down, intermittently asking him to show himself in.

The state of affairs gathered nationwide curiosity with the hashtag “crazed inspector” trending on Twitter in Thailand. A self-described Rishi hermit touring from a temple in Bangkok arrived on the scene Tuesday evening and stated the gunman was possessed and that he would be capable to remedy the state of affairs in the event that they had been allowed to satisfy, crime information web site Ejan reported. Police didn’t permit the assembly to occur because of security issues.

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The authorities’s National News Bureau of Thailand stated in a Wednesday morning Twitter publish {that a} bullet had grazed however not penetrated the helmet of 1 officer.

Thailand’s deadliest bloodbath passed off final yr when a former police officer shot and slashed to dying 36 folks at a daycare heart. The nation’s earlier worst mass killing concerned a disgruntled soldier who opened hearth in and round a mall within the northeastern metropolis of Nakhon Ratchasima in 2020, killing 29 folks and holding off safety forces for some 16 hours earlier than finally being killed by them.

Mass shootings are uncommon however not unparalleled in Thailand, which has one of many highest civilian gun possession charges in Asia with 15.1 weapons per 100 folks in comparison with solely 0.3 in Singapore and 0.25 in Japan. That’s nonetheless far decrease than the United States fee of 120.5 per 100 folks, in keeping with a 2017 survey by Australia’s GunPolicy.org nonprofit group.

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