Gunmen fire on Thai school bus, kill six

Masked gunmen armed with M-16 automatic rifles opened fire on a Thai school bus near the border with Myanmar on Tuesday, killing six teenage...

Masked gunmen armed with M-16 automatic rifles opened fire on a Thai school bus near the border with Myanmar on Tuesday, killing six teenagers and badly wounding at least 11 others, Education and Defence ministry officials said.

The attack took place on a road about 20 km from the border West of Bangkok, where tensions have been running high for two weeks.

‘‘A total of six students were killed,’’ Deputy Defence Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha told reporters after a weekly Cabinet meeting.

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‘‘Two students were killed instantly in the bus. Another four students have been pronounced dead in the hospital,’’ he said. The victims were aged between 13 and 17. There were about 25 students on the bus. Nine badly wounded were admitted to a local hospital.

‘‘They wore black masks and green jungle uniforms. I heard a series of loud shots and many of my friends were hit. My school uniform was splattered with their blood,’’ Siriporn Sornpad, a 13-year-old girl on the bus, told a radio station.