UTHAI SAWAN: Sorrow permeated the air as photographs of young toddler smiling and posing, toys, flowers and milks were placed on a row of small coffins of the victims killed in a rampage at a childcare centre in Uthai Sawan, Nong Bua Lamphu province, about 500 km northeast of Bangkok.
The grief-stricken parents sat beside the coffins, weeping, as relatives and villagers came to offer prayers as funeral ceremonies were set to begin on Saturday afternoon.
Services were being held at three temples – Wat Ratsamakkee, Wat Si Uthai and Wat Thepmongkulpichai – in Na Klang district starting Saturday.
Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn graciously granted a royal cremation ceremony for all the victims.
The funeral proceedings began on Saturday afternoon with a bathing ceremony, while the cremation is expected on Tuesday.
On Thursday, a sacked policeman killed 36 people including 24 children – 21 boys and three girls aged between two to four years old – and 12 adults, including his wife, in Uthai Sawan .
The 34-year-old man killed 23 children who were sleeping after lunch at the childcare centre.
The perpetrator then fled the scene in a vehicle, went home, and killed his wife and son before fatally shooting himself.
Meanwhile, the body of the gunman was cremated at a temple in Udon Thani today after temples in Nong Bua Lamphu refused to conduct a rites ceremony.
“Don’t do this again in your next life. Reborn to be a good person,” said the perpetrator’s mother before the cremation ceremony. -Bernama