Photos: Shoppers run after Siam Paragon mall shooting in Thailand’s Bangkok

Witnesses described chaotic scenes as the attack unfolded at Siam Paragon, one of Bangkok's top shopping destinations [Devjyot Ghoshal/Reuters]

An attacker has opened fire inside a major shopping centre in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, killing at least one person before being arrested.

Police said a suspect, who is a minor, was apprehended on Tuesday less than an hour after the first reported gunshots at the Siam Paragon Mall.

One person had been killed and six were injured, according to Yutthana Sretthanan, director of Bangkok’s Emergency Medical Center.

The shooting prompted authorities to shut access to the nearby Siam elevated train stop, preventing commuters from exiting the transit station as the evening rush hour began and intense rain pounded the city.

First responders could be seen entering the mall as sirens wailed outside.

Witnesses said crowds of people left the building, one of several shopping centres in the area popular with tourists and well-heeled Thais alike.

The incident happened days before Thais were planning to mark the anniversary of a grisly gun and knife attack at a rural daycare centre that killed 36 people, most of them preschoolers, on October 6, 2022.

Hundreds of people, including children, were earlier seen pouring out of the mall in Bangkok's commercial heart into torrential rain. [Jack Taylor/AFP]

Siam Paragon is Thailand's most famous mall, drawing large numbers of people with its high-end stores, aquarium, movie theatre and hugely popular food court dining. [Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo]

Dozens of police vehicles and a number of ambulances could be seen outside one of the shopping centre's main entrances in the wake of the shooting. [Tian Macleod Ji/AP Photo]

In 2013, the mall was named the world's most photographed place by Instagram. [Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo]

The shooting comes just days before the one-year anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in recent Thai history, when an ex-police officer armed with a knife and gun attacked a nursery, murdering 24 children and 12 adults. [Jack Taylor/AFP]

Police said a minor suspected of being the gunman had been arrested and was being questioned. [Thai rescue workers association/Reuters]

In 2020, a soldier shot and killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations around the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima. [Tian Macleod Ji/AP Photo]

A large number of people milled around the streets outside and on elevated walkways after Tuesday's incident. [Sirachai Arunrugstichai/Getty Images]