Thailand suspends import, trade of firearms after fatal mall shooting

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA(AA) - Thailand government on Thursday said it is suspending permits for importing and trading firearms, after a fatal mall shooting claimed two lives earlier this week, local media reported.

"The government is suspending the issuance of permits for importing and trading firearms, real and imitation, as one of seven short-term measures to improve gun control," Bangkok Post quoted Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul as saying.

On Tuesday, two people were killed and another six injured in a shooting at an upscale shopping center in the capital, Bangkok on Tuesday.

Police arrested a 14-year-old suspect, who according to the local police chief, is "a minor and appeared to be suffering from mental illness."

Last year, some 22 children were killed in a gun-and-knife attack by a former police cop at a nursery.

In 2020, a soldier shot and killed 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned multiple locations in and around the northeastern Thai city of Nakhon Ratchasima.