Soldier kills at least 20 in mass shooting at Thailand Mall
Bangkok, Feb 8: Dozens of terrified shoppers were evacuated from a Thai mall early Sunday as armed police said they had "taken control" of the ground floor of the complex from a gunman who killed at least 20 people.
But authorities did not give any firm details on the whereabouts of the attacker - a junior army officer named Sergeant-Major Jakrapanth Thomma.
There were fears the shooter could try to hide amongst the panicked crowds.
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 an army barracks to the mall where an unknown number of shoppers remained trapped.
Hospitals across the country braced for a grim night ahead.
"There are about 20 dead," Kongcheep Tantravanich, defence ministry spokesman said.
"Police, military commandos and sharp shooters are surrounding Terminal 21," he said.
The Thai Health Minister told reporters around 10 people were already in hospital in a "serious condition."
The bloodshed began Saturday afternoon when Jakrapanth shot three people -- among them at least one soldier -- at an nearby army barracks.
"He stole an army vehicle and drove into the town centre," police Lieutenant-Colonel Mongkol Kuptasiri.
There the gunman used weapons stolen from the army arsenal to bring carnage to a town centre, walking into the Terminal 21 mall.
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.
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.
There were also photos of a man in a ski mask holding up a pistol.
A Facebook spokesperson 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".
A witness who was inside the mall before the attack told AFP the shopping centre was thronging with shoppers on a long weekend.
"There were loads of people at the mall today," a 32-year-old from the city said, requesting anonymity.
"I was pretty shocked when I found out because I just left the mall not long before."
Street lights below the shopping centre were switched off as army and police units sealed off the Terminal 21 mall.
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.
Several shootings at courthouses late last year renewed concern about gun violence in the Southeast Asian country.
In another 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.
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Allahabad HC sets aside maintenance order in favour of earning wife, says she didn't tell truth
Prayagraj (PTI): The Allahabad High Court has set aside a lower court order mandating a man to pay maintenance to his estranged wife, observing that she earns her living and did not reveal the true salary in her affidavit.
Justice Madan Pal Singh also allowed a criminal revision petition filed by the man, Ankit Saha.
"A perusal of the impugned judgment indicates that in the affidavit filed before the trial court, the opposite party herself admitted that she is a post-graduate and a web designer by qualification. She is working as a senior sales coordinator in a company and getting a salary of Rs 34,000 per month," the court said in the December 3 order.
"But in her cross-examination, she has admitted that she was earning Rs 36,000 per month. Such an amount for a wife who has no other liability cannot be said to be meagre; whereas the man has the responsibility of maintaining his aged parents and other social obligations," it observed.
The high court observed that the woman was not entitled to get any maintenance from her husband "as she is an earning lady and able to maintain herself".
The man's counsel argued in court that the estranged wife did not reveal the whole truth in the affidavit.
"She claimed herself to be an illiterate and unemployed woman. When the document filed by the man was shown to her before the trial court, she admitted her income during cross-examination. Thus, it is clear that she did not come before the trial court with clean hands," the counsel submitted.
The court, in its order, said, "Cases of those litigants who have no regard for the truth and those who indulge in suppressing material facts need to be thrown out of the court."
It impugned the lower court's February 17 judgment and order, passed by the principal judge of a family court in Gautam Buddh Nagar and allowed the criminal revision petition filed by the man.
