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Girl, 9, Shot in Head After Accidental Gun Discharge in Chiang Rai

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A nine-year-old girl is in a coma after being shot in the forehead when a gun discharged inside a house in Doi Luang district, Chiang Rai, on 24 April 2026. The child, identified as Warin, was rushed to Doi Luang Hospital before being transferred urgently to Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital for surgery, as the bullet remained lodged in her head. Police said the incident occurred in a bedroom in Moo 1, Pong Noi subdistrict.

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Initial investigations found that the girl had been sitting with her 17-year-old cousin, Thitiwada, inside the room when the incident happened. The teenager discovered an object hidden under a blanket and, upon picking it up, realised it was a firearm. As she attempted to place it back and cover it with the blanket, she stated that the gun discharged a single round, striking the child in the head.

Hathairat, 56, the homeowner, said she heard a loud bang while working upstairs and initially believed children were playing with firecrackers. Moments later, her nine-year-old grandson ran to alert her that the girl had been shot. She rushed to the room and found the child lying in a pool of blood before arranging immediate transport to hospital.

Wasan, 32, the older brother and normal occupant of the bedroom, told police the weapon was a homemade .22 calibre pistol. He claimed he had found it by the roadside while returning from work and believed it to be either a fake or a broken gun. He said he left it on the bed under a blanket before going to take a shower, not expecting it to be functional.

Police Colonel Annop Lertsuwan, superintendent of Doi Luang Police Station, said investigators are gathering evidence and have not yet filed charges. Authorities are awaiting forensic examination of the bullet and further witness statements to determine potential offences, including negligence causing serious injury and violations under firearms laws.

Workpoint reported the case remains under investigation as the child undergoes emergency treatment, with her condition described as critical. Officials will decide on legal action once all evidence has been reviewed.

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image.png Adapted by ASEAN Now Workpointnews 25 Apr 2026


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It was the safety that is the problem...only safety needed is your finger. Triggers don't move on their own, a finger moved it. Boom

Very odd incident. Poor little girl.

Guns do not go off so easily so I suspect the 17 year old is full of it!

They need to stop allowing idiots, who leave them lying around with bullets in them and maybe the safety off, to have guns

An unloaded firearm in a safe cannot hurt anyone. Leaving a firearm lying around without first making sure it was unloaded is an accident/incident waiting to happen.

Pretty sure 2 people are telling lies in this story . The guy saying he just happened to find a loaded weapon and kept it because that's what you do with a fake or broken gun and the teenager saying it went off by accident. No doubt the gun was aimed and fired in joke not realising it was loaded .

You can't have general public gun safety knowledge when only the government has the guns.

Home made gun, possibly no guard around the trigger mechanism.

Who knows what happened.

But sure one or two people went straight into Thai lie mode.

Hope the little girl recovers.

4 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

Wasan, 32, the older brother and normal occupant of the bedroom, told police the weapon was a homemade .22 calibre pistol. He claimed he had found it by the roadside while returning from work and believed it to be either a fake or a broken gun. He said he left it on the bed under a blanket before going to take a shower, not expecting it to be functional.

How many did this guy fool?

Good to see all the in-depth analysis of the event by the AN experts, it will certainly save the BIB a lot of time with their investigation.

If the police find the brother's fingerprint on the cartridge his story flies out the window.

4 hours ago, jacko45k said:

They need to stop allowing idiots, who leave them lying around with bullets in them and maybe the safety off, to have guns

There fixed that for you.

1 hour ago, rocketboy2 said:

Home made gun, possibly no guard around the trigger mechanism.

Who knows what happened.

But sure one or two people went straight into Thai lie mode.

Hope the little girl recovers.

Please explain the difference between "Thai lie mode" and other people lying under similar circumstances. Such as "rocketboy lie mode". There's no need to inject bigotry into an already tragic story.

Will they check the kid's hand for powder burns? But kids are stupid. For 24/7 they see guns being pointed and triggers pulled, everywhere they turn, so it's almost a subconscious reflex that a kid will see a gun, act like it's a toy, and do what they see people doing with guns. My OPINION, even the Songkran mentality plays into the gun, point, shoot mentality.

5 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Guns do not go off so easily so I suspect the 17 year old is full of it!

They need to stop allowing idiots, who leave them lying around with bullets in them and maybe the safety off, to have guns

5 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Guns do not go off so easily so I suspect the 17 year old is full of it!

They need to stop allowing idiots, who leave them lying around with bullets in them and maybe the safety off, to have guns

It says it’s a home made gun. Extremely doubtful that they put a safety on it. You dont know how it’s made so it could have gone off accidentally. Hardly likely she would deliberately shoot her cousin. In America maybe but the rest of the world doubtful!

6 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

Initial investigations found that the girl had been sitting with her 17-year-old cousin, Thitiwada, inside the room when the incident happened. The teenager discovered an object hidden under a blanket and, upon picking it up, realised it was a firearm. As she attempted to place it back and cover it with the blanket, she stated that the gun discharged a single round, striking the child in the head.

Anyone who keeps a loaded firearm where children can access it should be tossed into prison and throw away the key.

1 hour ago, Jonathan Swift said:

Please explain the difference between "Thai lie mode" and other people lying under similar circumstances. Such as "rocketboy lie mode". There's no need to inject bigotry into an already tragic story.

Not been hear many years then. whistling

Good day.

7 hours ago, NedR69 said:

It was the safety that is the problem...only safety needed is your finger. Triggers don't move on their own, a finger moved it. Boom

Normally something like this cannot happen with a commercially manufactured weapon. This weapon, however, was “homemade”. With self-made suicidal crap like this, anything is possible.

Time to recall illegal guns and melt them down. Thailand isn't a country that deserves a gun culture (even though there's a lot of them here).

55 minutes ago, Purdey said:

Time to recall illegal guns and melt them down. Thailand isn't a country that deserves a gun culture (even though there's a lot of them here).

How do you recall illegal guns, that were never issued in the first place. stoner

18 hours ago, Brettoj said:

It says it’s a home made gun. Extremely doubtful that they put a safety on it. You dont know how it’s made so it could have gone off accidentally. Hardly likely she would deliberately shoot her cousin. In America maybe but the rest of the world doubtful!

Accept the point of a home made one.... but I can certainly believe a 17 year old goofing around pointing it at the kid. His description of events, less so.

On 4/25/2026 at 10:02 AM, Bannoi said:

If the police find the brother's fingerprint on the cartridge his story flies out the window.

Like they could be arsed to check

Off topic deflection posts about gun ownership in Europe have been removed as this topic is about:

Girl, 9, Shot in Head After Accidental Gun Discharge in Chiang Rai

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