udon thani thailand a former thai police officer armed with a gun and a knife killed at least 37 people in northeast thailand on thursday most of them children at a nursery in one of the kingdoms deadliest mass killingsfollowing the attack gunman panya khamrab went home and killed his wife and child before taking his own life police saidarmed with a shotgun pistol and knife panya opened fire on the childcare centre in northeastern nong bua lam phu province about 1230 pm 0530 gmtnational police chief damrongsak kittiprapat told a news conference the gunman had killed 37 people including 23 children and his own family and wounded 12 othersnanthicha punchum acting chief of the nursery described harrowing scenes as the attacker barged into the building in rural uthai sawan districtthere were some staff eating lunch outside the nursery and the attacker parked his car and shot four of them dead she told afpthe shooter smashed down the door with his leg and then came inside and started slashing the childrens heads with a knifefootage after the incident showed distraught parents weeping in a shelter outside the nursery a yellow singlestorey building set in a gardenthe 34yearold gunman was a former police sergeant suspended in january and sacked in june for drug use damrongsak told reportersas far as i know he was due in court tomorrow for a drugrelated trial he saidhe said the attacker was in a manic state but it was unknown whether it was drugrelatedwhat happened today will be a lesson to prevent this happening again in the future he saiddamrongsak said the pistol used had been purchased legally and was a privately owned weapon not police propertywitness paweena purichan 31 said the attacker was well known in the area as a drug addictshe told afp she encountered panya driving erratically as he fled the scenethe attacker rammed a motorbike into two people who were injured i sped off to get away from him she saidthere was blood everywherevideo paweena posted online showed a woman lying injured in a roadside bush after apparently being knocked off her motorbike by panyathai prime minister prayut chanocha ordered the national police chief to fasttrack an investigation and said he would travel to the scene of the attack on fridaythis should not happen this absolutely should not happen prayut told reportersi am extremely sorry for those who were injured and lost their loved onesa government spokesman said flags would fly at halfmast on friday to honour those killed in the attackthailand forms part of southeast asias socalled golden triangle which has long been an infamous hotspot for the trafficking and abuse of drugssurging supplies of methamphetamine have sent street prices crashing in thailand to alltime lows according to the united nations office on drugs and crimethe white house said the united states is horrified by the shooting while un secretary general antonio guterres said he was shocked and saddened and expressed his condolences to the families of the victimsthe mass killing