Mourning families knelt outside a Thai kindergarten where their children were murdered on Sunday and performed a Buddhist ceremony to put their souls to rest.
Dismissed police officer Panya Khamrab killed 36 people – 24 of them children – in one of the kingdom’s worst mass killings in a gun and knife rampage in northeastern Nong Bua Lam Phu province on Thursday.
Saffron-robed monks prayed for the Sunday of the Dead on a second day of ritual mourning at a temple near the kindergarten in Na Klang district, a quiet farming area devastated by Thursday’s bloodshed.
Families used to weep as they knelt in front of the kindergarten in a ceremony to help free their children’s souls. Some clung to portraits of their children, beloved toys and favorite foods, which they placed as offerings outside the grounds.
Heaps of flowers piled up around a low fence enclosing the pink-roofed, one-story nursery where, just a few days ago, children were happily playing.
The sweet scent of incense scented the air as the assembled crowd, including many well-wishers from the close-knit local community, bowed their heads in prayer as a low rumble of thunder echoed in the distance.
Officials ceremoniously carried the children’s prized belongings from the nursery to return them to their families—favorite blankets and much-loved toys, all carefully placed in name-tagged bags.
“When I see the tears of the families, I’m just really sad… I can’t describe it. I feel really bad about what happened in my hometown,” Rutt, 57, told AFP after joining her villagers in supporting the bereaved.
The carnage began when the attacker entered the building around 12:30 (05:30 GMT) on Thursday, during the children’s bedtime, opened fire with his own legal 9mm handgun and struck with a knife.
Afterward, the 34-year-old went home to murder his wife and son before taking his own life, police said, ending the rampage around 3pm.
Most of the victims died from stabbings or gunshots, and relatives told AFP the horrific wounds inflicted on their little ones.
– support of the king –
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, who was due to join prayers on Sunday night, has ordered a swift investigation and police have said they will question some 180 witnesses in the coming days.
Panya was fired as a police sergeant earlier this year for drug abuse, and locals say they suspected he was a methamphetamine addict, although preliminary tests found no drugs in his system.
King Maha Vajiralongkorn met survivors and relatives at a hospital late Friday in a rare public interaction for the monarch, who is officially considered semi-divine.
The king said he “shares the grief” of the families and pledged to support them.
The attack stunned Thailand and sparked global outrage. On Saturday, the Thai community in Melbourne, Australia, held a candlelit vigil to mourn the victims.
