A teenager armed with a gun has spread panic in one of Bangkok's best-known shopping malls and has killed three of his customers and injured four others. The luxurious Siam Paragon has had to be evacuated and the Siam elevated metro station, to which it connects, has been temporarily closed.
The individual, after wandering around the second floor of the shopping center, would have tried to flee, crossing to the Siam Kempinski hotel, located behind. On the third floor of this five-star establishment, the subject would have been cornered by special commandos. Following their instructions, the fourteen-year-old young man would have knelt and dropped the weapon, before being immobilized.
Police diligence is not alien to the proximity of the central police station, located almost opposite. The ambulances have also arrived promptly, since it is one of the busiest places in the Thai capital, in front of Siam Square.
Some of the victims have fallen in front of well-known franchises of high-end brands. Among them, at least one agent. One of the deceased would be a Chinese citizen and another a Burmese employee, according to the police.
The identity of the young man, who was wearing camouflage pants and a cap with the American flag, has not been revealed. According to the police, he is a video game addict who claimed to act "guided by a voice."
Siam Paragon, which has several floors and shops of everything from luxury brands to sports goods and cafes, is particularly popular with Thai youth and tourists. It currently displays, in front of its façade, several installations related to the Asian Games, which are being held in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.
The area around Siam Square is a traffic chaos even under normal conditions, so it is not surprising that the armed incident, shortly before dusk and close to rush hour, together with the monsoon rains and the closure of the station -which cross two different lines- has paralyzed the area.
It attests to the intensity of the rainfall that this afternoon caused the roof of a sports center in Bangkok to collapse, shortly before a competition was to begin. In this case, there have been no victims.
Siam Paragon is one of several shopping centers lined up in that same sector of Bangkok, on both sides of the aerial metro line known as BTS, under which cars circulate.
In the tweet below you can see the moment when panic spread.
