[Afigenatjola]

Thaivichitsilp Art School in Don Muang area has been ordered closed for seven days after a student travelling on a bus and another passenger were shot dead and two other passengers wounded on Wednesday.

The order was issued by the Private Education Commission in the hope of heading off further violence between feuding students from rival schools.

PEC deputy secretayr-general said the shooting occurred on the out-bound Vibhavadi-Rangsit highway when students ambushed the bus at a bus stop..

Pol Maj-Gen Pisith Pisuthisak, deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said the shooting occurred about 6.20pm. A group of students opened fire at bus No 59 (Rangsit-Victory Monument) at a bus stop in front of the building of the engineering department of the Thai Airways International in Don Muang area.

Two people were killed -- Wanchai Thongsaengkaew, 21, a first year student at Thaivichitsilp Art School, and a 48-year-old woman passenger Yupa Prai-ngam.

Wounded were Pasinee Thiemchitroong, an 18-year-old female passenger, and Thanasit Thaimuang, 23, a vocational school student.

Pol Maj-Gen Pisith said surveillance camera footage showed many people at the scene and police were trying to identify them.

The shooting happened before a large number of witnesses, he said. Friends of the student killed claimed they recognised the attackers.

It was initially thought six people in student uniforms were involved in the shooting. They were believed to be students of Don Muang Technical School. Police had sketched their pictures from accounts of the witnesses and a warrant for their arrest was expected to be issued tomorrow, June 15, Pol Maj-Gen Pisith said.

Soon after the incident, police took five students ini for questioning, but found they were not involved.

The officer said about 20 more witnesses would be questioned today to get as much information as possible in order to nail the culprits.