BANGKOK, Aug 11 (Reuters): Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Tuesday suspended the issuance of permits to buy firearms and said existing licences would be , days after a 14-year-old gunman killed nine people.

[1/4]A student of Debsirin Nonthaburi School leaves flowers outside the school following a deadly shooting, in Bang Kruai district in Nonthaburi province, on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand.

Anutin directed a deputy prime minister overseeing legal affairs to expedite a new gun control law, with stronger controls and significantly harsher penalties.

Police were ordered to ⁠stop renewing permits that enable people to buy firearms.

Registered firearms must be kept at home and cannot be carried in public, Anutin said, reiterating the current law.

For illegal firearms, studies are underway to enact legislation requiring their return to the state within a specified period, he said.

Last week, a teenage student killed ⁠people and himself at a school outside Bangkok after fatally shooting his grandparents in the Southeast Asian nation's worst mass killing in nearly four years.

Thailand had an estimated 10.3 million firearms ⁠in civilian possession, equating to around 15 guns per 100 residents, the highest rate in the region by a wide ⁠margin, according to a 2017 estimate by the Small Arms Survey.

The education minister proposed new school safety ⁠measures to cabinet, including screening everyone who enters education premises for illegal objects and weapons.

Photo from Reuters