Korat victims’ families to get B1m each
The families of the victims of a shooting rampage will receive 1 million baht each as public donations have soared to 58 million baht. However, the families of the gunman, the colonel and the woman he killed at a house during a dispute will not get it.
Nakhon Ratchasima governor Wichian Chantharanothai said donations to help victims of the rampage have soared to 58.5 million baht as of Thursday morning.
A provincial panel earlier provided 300,000 baht to the families of each victim as an initial aid before opening a bank account to accept public donations. As of Thursday, a total of 6.9 million baht was already given to the families of 23 dead victims (300,000 baht each) and 2.2 million to the families of 22 injured victims (100,000 baht each), leaving about 49 million baht.
The governor said the financial aid for the families of the dead victims would be increased to 1 million baht each, from 300,000 baht, as donations exceeded a target of 50 million baht.
Authorities would pay the remaining 700,000 baht each to the families on Friday.
Terminal 21 shopping centre in this northeastern province was the centre of the carnage on Saturday and Sunday, as Sgt Maj 1st Class Jakrapanth Thomma sprayed hundreds of bullets at people shopping and working there and holed up inside the mall.
The killing spree began on Saturday afternoon when he shot dead his commander Col Anantharot Krasae, Mrs Anong Mitchan, who was a real estate developer, and wounded a man identified as Witthaya Kaewprom over a real estate deal at Mrs Anong’s home in a military base.
Jakrapanth moved on to Surathampithak military camp, where he killed a guard and stole high-powered weapons and ammunition from the armoury, and then fled in a stolen military truck to a Buddhist temple, where he loaded the weapons and killed nine people before driving to Terminal 21.
He took 29 lives and hurt 58 others before police commandos shot him dead on Sunday morning.
