At least 21 people are dead after a Thai soldier opened fire in a shopping centre in Korat.

The soldier who massacred at least 29 people in Thailand and left more than 50 injured continued to post photo and videos from the scene to his Facebook page for almost five hours, it has been reported.

Thai soldier Jakrapanth Thomma began his 17-hour rampage at 3.30pm on Saturday when he killed his commanding officer, Anantharot Krasae, and Colonel Anantharot’s mother-in-law.

He then arrived at the Terminal 21 shopping centre in Nakhon Ratchasima, about 250km northeast of Bangkok, at 6pm and started shooting indiscriminately at people in and around the mall.

During the attack, he posted “Death is inevitable for everyone” to his Facebook page and later asked, “Should I give up?”

The killer, whose murderous spree was apparently sparked by a debt dispute, was eventually slain by sharpshooters.

Earlier, he had posted an image of a handgun and three sets of bullets, along with the words “it is time to get excited”.

A photo circulated on social media that appeared to be taken from the Facebook page shows a man wearing a green camouflaged military helmet while a fireball and black smoke rage behind him. Jakrapanth’s profile picture shows him in a mask and dressed in military-style fatigues and armed with a pistol. The background image is of a handgun and bullets.

ButFacebook, which was widely criticised after Christchurch gunman Brenton Tarrant used it to live-stream the massacre of 51 people at two New Zealand mosques, had pledged to overhaul the way it responded to such incidents.

But the social media giant reportedly only took down the Thai gunman’s profile after Thai authorities alerted them to posts midway through the 17-hour crisis.

A spokeswoman for Facebook did not confirm just how long the live-stream video was active on its site, but said the video posted by Jakrapanth did not depict any violence.

“We have removed the gunman’s presence on our services and have found no evidence that he broadcasted this violence on FBLive,” the spokeswoman said.

“We are working around the clock to remove any violating content related to this attack.”

The shooter, who was eventually shot dead on Sunday, made posts to his Facebook page during the attack, including a short video of himself to Facebook’s FBLive live-streaming platform.

In the video, he can be seen wearing his army helmet and holding a rifle, describing how he was tired and could barely move his fingers.

SURVIVORS TRACKED KILLER VIA CCTV

In a fourth-floor toilet of the Terminal 21 mall, shoppers jammed cubicle doors against the entrance to keep out a Thai soldier on a shooting spree, tracing his movements through fragments of CCTV passed on by friends on the outside.

Barricaded in the women’s toilet with a few dozen others, Chanathip Somsakul, a 33-year-old music teacher, and his wife pored through social media and made frantic calls to friends and family.

Their daughter Chopin sat watchfully on a ledge, a three-year-old bystander to a mass killing without precedent in Thailand.

Nakhon Ratchasima, a mid-size Thai city entwined like much of the northeastern Isaan region by tight family connections and social media networks, quickly began to rally to its own trapped inside.

“A friend who works at the mall was talking to a guy in the CCTV control room … he gave us updates on the location of the gunman,” Chanathip said.

Those details, shared over messaging apps, may have saved the lives of Chanathip, his family and the 20-30 others inside.

But in the swirl of competing information, dread gripped those hidden inside cupboards, storerooms and toilets across the mega-mall.

“Everyone was terrified and lost. There was so much information going around, people weren’t sure what to believe,” Chanathip said.

The killer stalked the concourses for hours.

He had already killed a number of people on his way into the shopping centre, the largest in the city and packed on the first day of a long weekend.

The shooter swaggered through the mall, a machine gun slung over his shoulder and wearing a helmet and combat gear, in full view of CCTV cameras.

Fear snapped through Chanathip’s hide-out when someone banged on the toilet door.

“I thought it could be the gunman. A lady asked ‘who is it?’ but there was no answer. She wanted to open the door but we all convinced her not to.” Chanathip had just finished teaching a music lesson and – like hundreds of others – was eating in the mall with his family when gunfire erupted.

His family took refuge in the women’s toilet. Some men pulled the toilet doors off and wedged them against the entrance.

At 9pm on Saturday they received word from police that they could leave, which they did — in an orderly fashion at first, along with dozens of others.

But gunshots rang out as they reached a car park, sparking a wild sprint. Inside, scores of others remained trapped, cowering in gym toilets, under restaurant tables and in store rooms — hoovering up information on the whereabouts of the gunman.

From inside the stockroom of H&M, Aldrin Baliquing, a Filipino teacher in his 40s, meditated to stay calm.

“I was so scared because the shop where we were trapped was just above the establishment where the gunman held his hostages,” he said, referring to unconfirmed reports the rogue soldier had taken human shields.

As police began to clear bullet-riddled cars and rust-red blood stains on the street that had dried in the Thai heat, survivors tried to make sense of a night of terror.

“Everything happened so fast,” Lapasrada Khumpeepong, 13, told AFP during a Sunday vigil for the dead and injured.

She and her mother had been trapped in the bathroom on the ground floor of Terminal 21, cornered there for five hours after they tried to flee from the sound of rapid gunfire.

“Thank you to those who sacrificed themselves to keep others alive,” she scrawled on a condolences board at the vigil.

“Without you, we would not be here today.”

THAI GUNMAN KILLED AFTER SHOOTING SPREE OVER FINANCIAL DISPUTE

Meanwhile, officials confirmed the shooter went on the rampage because of a debt dispute.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha said the youngest shot dead by Sergeant-Major Jakrapanth Thomma, a junior army officer, was a 13-year-old boy.

Others killed by Thomma included civilians and security forces at the Terminal 21 mall in Nakhon Ratchasima, also known as Korat, where the attack took place.

“It is unprecedented in Thailand, and I want this to be the last time this crisis happens,” Prayut said.

The former army chief added a “personal problem” over the sale of a house was what sparked the soldier’s rampage, which began on Saturday afternoon near an army barracks and was for several hours relayed by the gunman via Facebook posts.

“No one can escape death,” read one of the gunman’s posts.

A video shows soldier identified as Sgt. Jakkrapanth Thomma firing an assault rifle into the traffic close to Terminal 21 shopping mall in Korat. He has shot dead at least 12 victims so far, police say. #กราดยิงโคราช



Story: https://t.co/1qWp0ylxf8 pic.twitter.com/kR8XNeXaHp — Khaosod English (@KhaosodEnglish) February 8, 2020

Another asked, “Should I give up?”

In a later post, he wrote, “I have stopped already.”

“This was not carelessness. We don’t leave the arsenal depot alone – we had people guarding it,” Prayut said.

Most of the dead were killed in and around the mall.

EVACUEES RECOUNT HORROR

Evacuees recounted how an ordinary Saturday at the shopping centre descended into horror as the gunman entered, sparking an hours-long ordeal.

“It was like a dream … I’m grateful I survived,” Sottiyanee Unchalee, 48, told AFP, explaining she hid in the toilet of a gym inside the mall as she heard the gunfire.

Soldiers were seen hurriedly escorting people from a Thai shopping mall after a shooting rampage.

21 Dead, 31 Hurt in Thai Mass Shooting; Gunman Hides in Mall#koratshooting #savekorat #SaveThailandhttps://t.co/xl2OTEvj8j pic.twitter.com/gym5D5Dosa — Kondektur Bus™ (@kondekturbus_) February 9, 2020

Filipino teacher Aldrin Baliquing said he was ushered into a storeroom by staff as the shooting began.

“We were there for six gruelling hours … I’m in shock,” he said.

“It was total panic, it was like a zombie movie,” Chanatip Somsakul, 33, said of the escape with his wife and three-year-old daughter.

“People jumped on motorbikes and ran in all directions.”

DURING THE ATTACK

Dozens of terrified shoppers ran from the Terminal 21 mall in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima after armed police said they had “taken control” of the ground floor of the complex.

“We don’t know why he did this. It appears he went mad,” defence ministry spokesman Kongcheep Tantrawanit said during the attack.

A police spokesman added: “The gunman used a machine gun and shot innocent victims resulting in many injured and dead.”

There were fears the shooter tried hide in the panicked crowd.

Photo released by the Crime Suppression Divison shows the commandos securing the ground floor of the shopping mall. pic.twitter.com/vUuWkGKZkb — Khaosod English (@KhaosodEnglish) February 8, 2020

Images posted on social media showed people sprinting across the mall car parks and walkways once they were freed.

Police from the Crime Suppression Division urged fleeing shoppers to “raise their hands” and identify themselves on the ground floor “and authorities will evacuate you”.

Earlier Jakrapanth relayed his shooting spree through Facebook posts which charted the attack from army barracks in the city to the mall, where an unknown number of shoppers remained trapped.

EXCLUSIVE: Video shows Sgt. Jakkrapanth Thomma inside Terminal 21 shopping mall in Nakhon Ratchasiman during his shooting rampage that killed at least 12 people. Latest info indicates he's holding 16 people as hostages. #กราดยิงโคราช https://t.co/1qWp0y3VQy pic.twitter.com/y8pqfzw0yw — Khaosod English (@KhaosodEnglish) February 8, 2020

A volunteer rescue worker recounted a bloody scene of horror after his team carried four corpses to the hospital.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Peerapong Chatadee told AFP.

“I just feel so sad. He is a soldier. He should not have fired at unarmed people.”

The Thai Health Minister told reporters on Sunday morning about 10 people were in hospital in a “critical condition.”

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

The bloodshed began Saturday afternoon when Jakrapanth shot three people – among them at least one soldier – at a senior officer’s house and then at nearby army barracks.

“He stole an army vehicle and drove into the town centre,” police Lieutenant-Colonel Mongkol Kuptasiri said.

There the gunman used weapons stolen from the military arsenal to bring carnage to a town centre, walking into the Terminal 21 mall.

Thai Rath television, which aired security camera footage showing a man with what appeared to be an assault rifle, said the incident began at about 3:30pm.

Video taken outside the mall showed people diving for cover as shots rang out.

The gunman shot at a cooking gas cylinder inside the mall’s food court, causing it to explode and catch fire.

He “used a machine gun and shot innocent victims resulting in many injured and dead,” police spokesman Krissana Pattanacharoen said.

Jakrapanth’s motive remains unclear.

‘SHOULD I SURRENDER?’

But throughout the day he posted images of himself and wrote several posts on his Facebook page as the attack unfolded, including “should I surrender?” and “no one can escape death”.

In one Facebook video – since deleted – the assailant, wearing an army helmet, filmed from an open jeep saying, “I’m tired … I can’t pull my finger anymore” and making a trigger symbol with his hand.

In a later post, he wrote, “I have stopped already.”

Jakrapanth’s profile picture shows him in a mask and dressed in military-style fatigues and armed with a pistol. The background image is of a handgun and bullets.

In a photo circulated on social media that appeared to be taken from his Facebook page, the suspect can be seen wearing a green camouflaged military helmet while a fireball and black smoke rage behind him.

The Facebook page was made inaccessible after the shooting began.

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A Facebook spokesman said “we have removed the gunman’s accounts from our services and will work around the clock to remove any violating content related to this attack as soon as we become aware of it”.

The attack is reminiscent of Brenton Tarrant’s attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, which he live streamed on Facebook.

SHOOTING RENEWS CONCERN ABOUT GUN VIOLENCE

The city — better known as Korat — is home to one of Thailand’s largest barracks in a country where the military is enmeshed in politics and society.

Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world but mass shootings by soldiers targeting civilians are rare.

Several shootings at courthouses late last year also renewed concern about gun violence in the Southeast Asia country.

In one high-profile case, a two-year-old boy was among three people killed in Thailand when a masked gunman robbed a jewellery shop last month.

Late last year two lawyers were shot dead by a clerk at a court in the east of the country during a hearing over a land dispute.