A former policeman on Thursday killed 34 people including 22 children in a gun rampage at a daycare centre in Thailand.

The ex-cop later shot dead his wife and child at their home in Uthai Sawan, a town 500 km (310 miles) northeast of Bangkok in the province of Nong Bua Lamphu.

Thereafter, he turned his weapon on himself, police officials said.

The ex-policeman was dismissed from his post last year over drug allegations.

“The man had been facing trial on a drugs charge and had been in court in the hours before the shooting.

“He had come to collect his child from the daycare centre but opened fire when he did not find the child there,” a police spokesperson told broadcaster ThaiPBS.

Paisal Luesomboon, a police spokesperson, also told ThaiPBS that witnesses reported seeing the attacker use a knife and a gun. “He started shooting, slashing, killing children at the Utai Sawan daycare centre,” Paisal said.

District official Jidapa Boonsom, who was working in a nearby office at the time, told Reuters that about 30 children were at the facility when the attacker arrived, fewer than usual, as heavy rain had kept many people away.

“The shooter came in around lunch time and shot four or five officials at the childcare centre first,” said Jidapa.

At first people thought the shots were fireworks, she said.

According to her, “It’s really shocking. We were very scared and running to hide once we knew it was shooting. So many children got killed, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The attacker forced his way into a locked room where children were sleeping, Jidapa said. She said she thought he killed children there with a knife, adding that a teacher who was eight months pregnant was also killed with a knife.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha, in a statement on Facebook, called the shooting a “shocking incident”.

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“I have ordered the police chief to travel to the scene immediately to take necessary actions and all involved parties to provide immediate relief to all affected people,” he said in the statement.

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan will travel to Uthai Sawan to visit the scene on Thursday, his office said.

By afternoon, officials stood guarding the front entrance to the daycare centre, a pink, one-storey building surrounded by a lawn and small palm trees.

In a gazebo nearby, anxious-looking people gathered, waiting mostly in silence for news. One woman could be heard weeping.

“He (attacker) was already stressed and when he couldn’t find his child he was more stressed and started shooting,” police spokesperson Paisal told broadcaster ThaiPBS, adding that he had then driven home and killed his wife and child there before taking his own life.

The Star