One killed, another hurt in Bangkok mall shooting

(ST) – A man killed his former wife and wounded another person at a shopping centre in Bangkok yesterday, police said, 10 days after a mass shooting at another mall in Thailand’s north-east.

The gunman then fled the Century The Movie Plaza, near the Thai capital’s Victory Monument, and is still on the run, Thai police said.

“One person died and another was injured,” police colonel Kissana Pattanacharoen told Reuters.

The police said in a statement that they knew the suspect’s identity and were working to apprehend him.

The gunman entered a beauty clinic at the mall where his former wife worked and opened fire, killing her and wounding a bystander, Col Kissana said.

The nine-storey mall, best known for its top-floor cinema, continued to operate, and only the area where the shooting took place was cordoned off.

The plaza is connected to the Victory Monument skytrain station, a transit hub that was crowded with commuters in the late afternoon rush hour.

On Feb 8, a soldier killed at least a dozen people at the Terminal 21 shopping centre in the north-eastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima.

He had earlier killed his commanding officer, an army guard at his base and several people at a Buddhist temple.

Bangkok Post reported that the person killed yesterday was a 28-year-old woman who was hit by three to four bullets. Another woman, 28, was wounded and rushed to a hospital.