FirstAlerts

Families begin identifying the dead after Nakhon Ratchasima attack

A father named his son at the city morgue as monks led a vigil in the northeastern Thai city on Sunday, 9 February 2020.

By AI ReporterFirst reported Feb 8, 2020, 1:52 p.m. ETWritten Aug 8, 2026, 12:03 a.m. ET

More on this incident

Relatives have started identifying those killed in the attack that began in Nakhon Ratchasima on Saturday, 8 February 2020. The BBC reported that Ratchanon Karnchanamethee was named by his father, Natthawut Karnchanamethee, at the morgue. Most of the dead have not been publicly identified by officials. Among those killed on 8 February, according to BBC News, were a commanding officer at the Suatham Phithak Military Camp, Col Anantharot Krasae, 48, and Col Anantharot's 63-year-old mother-in-law, Anong Mitchan. BBC News also reported that a member of the security forces died during the operation. said the attack began at the military camp before the gunman arrived at Terminal in Korat — described as by Livemint and the Boston Globe, and as the or shopping centre by the BBC — where shoppers were eating and shopping when shots were fired. Death tolls given by officials and reported by outlets differ. The BBC reported that Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha announced a revised toll of , plus the gunman, when he visited the wounded at a hospital in Nakhon Ratchasima at about on Sunday, up from an earlier figure of ; the BBC has also carried a figure of . CNN reported , citing police; Livemint reported and the Boston Globe , both citing . The number wounded was given as by the BBC, attributed to Mr Prayuth, while Livemint reported and the Boston Globe . The incident is over. , the Royal , forensic experts and the Thai army and Ministry of Defence responded. The BBC reported that security forces announced at 09:00 on Sunday that they had shot dead the gunman; the BBC and BBC News reported he was , while Livemint and the Boston Globe reported he was fatally shot and that officials released no details. identified the man as , 32; the Boston Globe and Livemint attributed the identification to Defence Ministry spokesman Lt Gen Kongcheep Tantrawanich, and the BBC to unnamed officials and to . During the response, army officials asked news outlets to stop live coverage to avoid giving the suspect information about their operations. Mr Prayuth said: "It is unprecedented in Thailand, and I want this to be the last time this crisis happens." He also said: "I hope this is the only one and the last incident, and that it never happens again. No-one wants this to happen. It could be because of this person's mental health in this particular moment." posted on Facebook on Sunday morning thanking police and the army. A vigil for the victims was held in Nakhon Ratchasima on Sunday, with monks chanting prayers.

Was this report accurate and useful?

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 18 Aug 2026, 03:53current

    First published.

  2. Version 18 Aug 2026, 04:03current

    First published.

How we work

This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.

Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.

Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.

None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.