At least one woman and two students, one of them a 14-year-old girl, were hospitalized in southern Thailand after being wounded in a shooting that occurred this Wednesday at a school in the southern province of Songkhla. The Ministry of Public Health announced on Facebook that a woman was shot in the chest and torso and a 14-year-old student was wounded in the abdomen. Both have undergone surgery. Additionally, another student from the Patong Prathan Kiriwat school in the city of Hat Yai, where the incident took place, is being treated in a hospital after falling during the shooting and suffering an ankle injury. The Thai Police confirmed that they have detained a man suspected of storming into a school and holding teachers and students hostage in the south of the country. They detailed that the armed assailant entered the Patong Prathan Kiriwat school in Hat Yai city around 4:45 local time and fired two or three rounds of shots, after which he held teachers and students hostage, according to the Provincial Public Relations Department's Facebook account. It is unknown how many people were inside the school at the time of the incident or the ages of the students. According to provincial authorities, the incident occurred as classes were ending. Southern Thailand has been a frequent scene of attacks in recent decades due to an insurgency by separatist groups demanding independence for some areas of Songkhla and three predominantly Muslim provinces. Thailand has a high rate of firearms per capita and shootings are not uncommon. Last July, a shooting at a market in Bangkok left three dead, while in 2022, 34 people, including 22 children, died after a former police officer attacked a daycare center.
