Thai policeman kills wife at kindergarten, 44 children safe

A police officer shot dead his teacher wife at the kindergarten where she worked in Thailand's Chonburi province on Wednesday, officials said, while all 44 children at the school were reported safe.

Sayan Klomaon, chairman of Nong Pla Lai sub-district council, said the policeman, who was local to the area, came to the school at about 10:30 am and talked with his wife before shooting her.

Sayan said no students saw the shooting because it happened outside the classroom. He said the gunman then returned home and all the children had been picked up.

Chonburi Governor Naris Niramaiwong said all 44 children, three teachers and three other staff members were safely evacuated. He said police had surrounded the house where the gunman was and were negotiating his surrender.

Naris ordered the kindergarten closed and said psychological support would be provided to children and staff who witnessed the incident. The motive remained unclear.

The shooting came a month after a teenager shot his grandparents and then five staff and a pupil at his school before killing himself, according to the AFP account. In 2022, an ex-policeman armed with a gun and a knife stormed a nursery in northern Thailand and killed 24 children and 12 adults.