Thai pupil describes harrowing moment teacher was shot in front of her

On Friday morning, as the final classes of the week were under way, panicked students began streaming out of a prestigious school just outside Bangkok.

Inside, police say, a 14-year-old boy had opened fire at the Debsirin School in Nonthaburi.

“I was standing in front of the teacher when she was shot,” a shaken seventh grader tells the BBC, near the school gates. “She was talking to me when [the gunman] showed up.”

Still in her uniform, with her mother by her side, she explains how the shooter stalked from room to room.

Police say he killed five teachers and injured more than a dozen people – including fellow pupils – before turning the weapon on himself. Earlier, he had gunned down his grandparents.

“I had to climb over the school fence to escape with other friends,” the girl, who the BBC is not naming, continues.

Her mother says the girl thought she might die. “[She said] ‘I thought I’d never see you again’.”

One 18-year-old student told Reuters he initially thought firecrackers were going off.

“I didn’t think it was a gun at first,” he said. “There were many shots: bang bang bang. Then it went quiet. Then it started again.”

Metres from the school gates, paramedics loaded the wounded into ambulances and rushed them to hospital, as milling crowds hugged and cried.

Rescue worker Kiatikhun Verapongpradith rushed to the scene after hearing children as young as 12 had been shot.

“I saw students who had been shot, some in the arm, some in the back, some in the chest. So I rushed to help get them to the hospital first,” the 47-year-old rescue worker told Reuters news agency.

One grieving teacher told the BBC one of his friends was among the dead.

“She was my age. We went to this school together as students. Then we both became teachers at this school,” the 31-year-old, who declined to give his name, said.