A 14-year-old boy has been arrested after two people were killed in a terrifying mass shooting at a luxury shopping mall that is one of the most visited places in Asia.

The skinny bespectacled teen surrendered to police who descended on Siam Paragon, the most famous shopping centre in the Thai capital of Bangkok, in response to the attack.

Hundreds of shoppers were seen screaming and racing out the exits and onto the streets as torrential rain poured down in the heart of Bangkok’s busy commercial district when the shooting occurred on Tuesday afternoon.

Police said two people were killed — one Chinese citizen and a mall worker who was Burmese — and five people were critically injured.

Police chief Torsak Sukvimol said the young suspect had been receiving psychiatric treatment but had skipped his prescribed medicine on the day of the incident.

“We have spoken to his parents,” Torsak said.

“The suspect said that someone was telling him to shoot others.”

The 14-year-old suspected gunman is detained. Photo: AAP

Emergency services shared an image of a police officer handcuffing an individual lying face down on the ground and another of an officer retrieving a handgun from the floor.

Footage of police with the boy show him wearing black glasses, khaki cargo trousers and a baseball cap.

The boy reportedly went to a nearby private school.

Siam Paragon is Thailand’s most famous mall, drawing throngs of local and foreign shoppers daily to its high-end stores, aquarium, plush movie theatre and popular food court dining. It was named the world’s most photographed place by Instagram in 2013.

Fleeing shoppers were ushered by security guards from the shopping centre into torrential rain and towards a road with heavy traffic.

Verified social media footage showed some rushing towards the exit of a ground-floor supermarket, screaming as a gunshot rang out.

“It happened in just a few minutes. We saw all the people run, run, run, we didn’t understand what was happening,” said 26-year-old Shir Yahav from Israel, who was at a designer store at the time of the shooting.

“We heard several shots, like six or seven shots.”

Shoppers exit Siam Paragon shopping centre in Bangkok after the shooting. Photo: Getty

Susinee, a restaurant worker, said she and her colleagues bolted when they heard gunshots.

“We just ran out,” she said, standing with half a dozen of her colleagues.

Police said that staff at the mall had received training in dealing with active shooters.

The mall said it was evacuated immediately, stressing safety was of the utmost importance.

“Siam Paragon would like to express our deep apologies for the unexpected event,” it said in a statement, adding the mall would reopen on Wednesday.

Mass shootings are rare in Thailand but gun violence and gun ownership are not uncommon.

The incident comes a year after an ex-police officer killed 35 people, including 22 children at a nursery, during an hours-long gun-and-knife attack. He later turned the gun on himself at home.

In 2020, a soldier shot and killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations around the north-eastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima.

The incident comes as Thailand’s new government seeks to stimulate its sluggish economy by boosting tourist arrivals in what is one of Asia’s most popular travel hotspots, including by offering visa-free entry to Chinese citizens.

-with AAP