A Thai soldier reportedly killed his commanding officer, then stole an army vehicle and posted live video on Facebook as he went on a shooting spree toward a mall in the northern Thailand city of Nakhon Ratchasima (also known as Korat).
As he drove towards the Terminal 21 shopping mall in Korat, a city 155 miles northeast of Bangkok, Thomma opened fire, spraying bullets at civilians along the road.
Reports say the sergeant major also fired on a Buddhist temple en route
Thai Commando's shot him dead after he holed himself up in a shopping centre.
Police and military sources told Reuters they had killed 32-year-old Jakrapanth Thomma on Sunday morning, a few hours after a failed raid on the Terminal 21 mall in Nakhon Ratchasima left one member of the security forces dead and two injured.
Police killed the perpetrator and rescued eight hostages. Sharp-shooters brought an end to the 17-hour-ordeal when they killed the gunman on Sunday morning. Some were wounded
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who visited the injured in hospital on Sunday, said the gunman killed 26 people and wounded 57
Twenty-six people including civilians -- the youngest a 13-year-old boy -- and security forces were killed by the rogue soldier, Thailand's prime minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha said.
Prayut, a gruff former army chief, blamed a "personal problem" over the sale of the house for the soldier's rampage, which began on Saturday afternoon near an army barracks and was for several hours relayed by the gunman via Facebook posts.
The attacker, a junior army officer identified as Sergeant-Major Jakrapanth Thomma, used a stolen M60 machine gun, rifles and ammunition from one of Thailand's largest barracks as well as a military humvee to carry out the attack.
Prayut said he overpowered security at the barracks' arsenal.
"This was not carelessness. We don't leave the arsenal depot alone -- we had people guarding it."
Most of the dead were killed in an around the mall.
Volleys of gunfire rang out as the siege ran into dawn, hours after Thai security services stormed the ground floor and freed scores of stunned, terrified shoppers from a bloody rampage.
Purported video from the scene -- shared on social media -- showed snipers in webbing on elevated walkways, aiming their rifles downwards as heavy gunfire echoed across a concourse below.
The gunman relayed his shooting spree through Facebook posts which charted the attack from an army barracks to the city mall.
Despite the prime minister's speculation Jakrapanth's exact motive remained unclear as Korat -- a sedate and mid-size town -- tried to digest the scale of the atrocity.
The bloodshed began Saturday afternoon when he shot three people -- among them at least one soldier -- at a senior officer's house and then at the nearby army barracks, before driving a military vehicle to the town centre.
There the gunman used the stolen weapons to unleash carnage in the town centre.
Throughout the day, he posted images of himself and wrote several posts on his Facebook page as the attack unfolded.
In one Facebook video -- since deleted -- the assailant, wearing an army helmet, filmed from an open-top jeep, saying, "I'm tired... I can't pull my finger anymore" as he made 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."
