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A teenage boy with a handgun has opened fire inside a major shopping centre in the centre of Thailand's capital, killing at least two people before being apprehended, authorities say.
Police said a suspect was apprehended less than an hour after the first reported gunshots on Tuesday afternoon (Tuesday night AEDT) at the Siam Paragon Mall, long seen as one of the Thai capital's biggest and most upscale shopping destinations.
Video uploaded to social media and broadcast on television showed a long-haired teenage boy in the custody of police.
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Major Thai media said he was 14 years old, though recently appointed police chief Torsak Sukvimol confirmed only that he is a minor and that he appeared to be suffering from mental illness.
Torsak said two people had been killed, a visitor from China and a Myanmar national. Earlier, Yutthana Sretthanan, director of Bangkok's Erawan Emergency Medical Center, had said three people were killed and six were injured.
There was no explanation of the discrepancy, though Yutthana later supported the police number.
Police spokesman Archayon Kraithong told reporters the situation was under control at the shopping centre, which sells high-end fashions and luxury cars, and includes a cinema, an aquarium and the five-star Siam Kempinski hotel.
Hundreds of shoppers fled the Siam Paragon Mall in the centre of the Thai capital after hearing gunshots.
The incident prompted authorities to shut access to the nearby Siam elevated train stop, preventing commuters from exiting the transit station, as the evening rush hour began and intense rain pounded the city, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene.
First responders could be seen entering the shopping centre as sirens wailed outside.
Police spokesman Archayon Kraithong said police officers in the area had been ordered to secure the scene.
Witnesses said crowds of people left the building, one of several shopping centres in the area popular with tourists and well-heeled Thais alike.
Chinese tourist Liu Shiying told the AP that she saw people running and saying someone had opened fire.
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She said she heard gunshots and an alarm ringing out and, that the lights in the shopping centre went out.
"We're temporarily hiding. Who dares to go out?" she said while taking cover. She was later able to leave.
Multiple videos uploaded to social media showed people running out of the building and a person dressed in a baseball cap, dark shirt and camouflage pants holding a handgun.
Video posted later showed what appeared to be the shooter surrendering to police.
The incident happened days before Thais were planning to mark the one-year anniversary on October 6 of a grisly gun and knife attack at a rural day care centre that killed 36 people, most of them preschoolers.
Gun violence is not uncommon in Thailand, though mass shootings are rare.
In 2020, a disgruntled soldier opened fire in and around a mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, killing 29 people and holding off security forces for some 16 hours before eventually being killed by them
