NONTHABURI — Thailand’s prime minister said today he had suspended firearms licences after last week’s deadly school shooting, as the bodies of the teenage assailant and the grandparents he killed were cremated.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said he had ordered the interior ministry and police to stop issuing licenses to possess, purchase and carry firearms, and called for “tighter controls and decisive penalties”.

On Friday, a 14-year-old boy shot dead the grandparents who raised him at their home in Nonthaburi, north of Bangkok, before killing six others at his school and then turning the gun on himself.

The white caskets of the couple were laid out at the Tem Rak Samakkhi Buddhist temple on Tuesday, alongside their portraits, ahead of their cremation capping a funeral lasting several days.

The boy’s smaller casket was placed to the side at the same temple, surrounded by white flowers.

Among the mourners was Tawee Piewphong, who paid tribute to his brother-in-law—the grandfather—as “a man of few words, but a very kind person”.

Speaking to AFP, Tawee expressed shock at the killings, saying he had no idea what motivated the teenager—but also offering compassion.

“I want to tell him that being 14 is just a small fraction of your entire life, and every problem has a solution. Not everything is the end of the world,” the 70-year-old said.

He suggested the boy may have killed his grandparents “so they would not be responsible for the actions he was going to take at school later”.

Ajima, who asked that her surname be withheld for privacy reasons, told AFP she was a relative of the boy and felt deeply sorry for him.

“A boy at that age is like a blank piece of fabric. He must have gone through a lot of issues, but nobody knows why he resorted to shooting as a solution. I feel terribly sorry for him,” she said.

Investigators are still seeking a motive for the shooting, but police said on Sunday the boy had watched violent videos online and once brought a BB gun to school.