Shafaqna Pakistan: The death toll from a school shooting in Thailand rose to nine on Saturday after a 12-year-old girl injured in the attack died, police said.
Officers at Plai Bang Police Station in Nonthaburi province told Reuters that the girl succumbed to her injuries a day after a 14-year-old boy allegedly shot his grandparents before killing five other people at his school and then turning the gun on himself.
The incident has renewed concerns over gun violence in Thailand, with Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul pledging on Friday to introduce stricter firearms control legislation in the country, which has one of Southeast Asia’s highest rates of gun ownership.
Anutin, who previously tightened gun laws when he was interior minister, will now propose a law to restrict the carrying of firearms by the public.
“The new law will only allow government officials on duty to carry guns,” he told reporters on Friday, but did not provide any specifics for the envisaged legislation, including whether it will tighten gun ownership requirements.
Under Thai rules, there are separate licenses issued for owning and carrying firearms.
Thailand had an estimated 10.3 million firearms in civilian possession, equating to around 15 guns per 100 residents — the highest rate in the region by a wide margin, according to a 2017 estimate by the Small Arms Survey.
