Thai man shoots dead six members of his own family after New Year’s party row

Six-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son among dead

Thailand has a high rate of gun ownership and gun-related death, but mass shootings are rare (Getty)

A man murdered six members of his own family – including his two young children – before killing himself after a New Year’s party, police in Thailand said.

Sucheep Sornsung, 41, returned home shortly after midnight “heavily” drunk to celebrate with his wife’s family, authorities said.

They began arguing before the man began shooting members of the group, including his six-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son.

Two men and two women, aged between 47 and 71 – also family members – were killed and a seventh man was injured but survived the shooting.

Sucheep then turned the gun on himself, police in the state of Chumphon, in central Thailand close to the border with Myanmar, said.

Major general Saharat Saksilapachai, commander of the provincial police, said he believed the incident was triggered by an ongoing family dispute and that alcohol was not a factor.

"The (suspect) went to a party with his friends then came home to see his wife's family and they started arguing before he used his gun to shoot them," he said.

“We suspect that his rage came from old problems with his wife's family.”

Lieutenant Colonel Larp Kampapan told the AFP news agency the man was “angry that as the son-in-law he was not being made welcome by his wife's family”.

Sucheep had a drug-related criminal record and had previously been jailed but there was no history of violence against his family, police said.

Thailand has a high rate of gun ownership and gun-related deaths, but mass shootings are rare – in the US a mass shooting is defined as an incident in which a shooter kills at least four people.

According to 2016 data from the University of Washington, Thailand had the highest reported rate of gun-related deaths out of 10 countries in Asia. It was about 50 per cent higher than the Philippines, which was second on the list.

Thailand's Interior Ministry has reported that there are more than 6 million registered firearms in the country of 69 million people. But there are also many unregistered guns in circulation.

Additional reporting by Reuters