Thailand: Hostage taking and shooting, 8 people died

At least eight people were killed in a hostage situation today (July 11) in Krabi province, southern Thailand.

A gunman stormed into a house and took eight people, including a child, hostage, police said. He then shot and killed eight hostages and wounded three others.

Police found five people dead at the scene and three died on the way to the hospital. Photo: Twitter

Initial investigation shows that the motive for the hostage taking was a personal dispute.

Thailand is one of the countries with a relatively high rate of gun ownership. Statistics from the Thai Ministry of Interior show that there are about 6.1 million Thais registered to own guns in this country, not counting those who own them but do not register them.

Statistics recently released by the University of Washington, USA, show that Thailand has the highest rate of gun deaths among 10 countries in Asia, 50% higher than the Philippines - the country ranked 2nd in terms of gun ownership rate in Asia./.

According to VOV