Ex-Thai MP accused of shooting official and driver

Police arrested former Thai MP Chalong Riewrang on Monday on suspicion of shooting and wounding a local government official and his driver in Nonthaburi province north of Bangkok.

Nonthaburi police chief Dejrapee Kongdee said Chalong had been taken to a police station and that investigators were looking into his motive. He said both wounded people were being treated in hospital.

The police chief said one of the wounded was the chairman of the Nonthaburi local government administration and was seriously injured. The other was the official's driver, but police did not give details of his condition.

Local media reported that a private dispute may have led to the alleged shooting, but Dejrapee declined to comment on that claim. Chalong was formerly a member of Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul's party.

The alleged attack came days after a 14-year-old boy shot dead the grandparents who raised him in Nonthaburi before killing six others at his school and then killing himself. Thailand has around 10 million firearms estimated to be in circulation, roughly one for every seven inhabitants, and officials have promised stricter gun laws since that shooting.