UTHAI SAWAN, Thailand (AP) – Grieving families gathered at a Buddhist temple on Sunday to pray and make offerings to the ghosts of their deceased toddlers who were killed in a frenzy by a former police officer who shot them with knives in their daycare center in Thailand. northeast Thailand last week.
The grieving relatives gathered at Rat Samakee Temple, one of three temples where the bodies of the 36 victims – 24 of them children and most of them toddlers – will be placed for funeral rites and cremation on Tuesday.
Relatives sat in front of the small coffins praying as Buddhist monks chanted prayers around them. Later, they placed trays of food, toys, and milk along the outside of the temple walls as offerings to the spirits of their slain children.
“Today, all family members will hold a ceremony to guide children’s souls back to the temple,” said Panida Prawana, a relative of a victim.
The mourning ceremony lasts three days before burials and cremation of the bodies according to Buddhist tradition.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is expected to attend evening prayers at one of the temples later Sunday.
Thursday’s massacre was the country’s deadliest, with the perpetrator killing dozens of people at the Young Children’s Development Center in Uthai Sawan and injuring several others. He then left the nursery and drove home, where he killed his wife and son before committing suicide.
Police identified the attacker as Panya Kamrap, 34, a former police sergeant who was fired earlier this year for drug possession involving methamphetamine.
A nursery worker told Thai media that Panya’s son had visited the center but hadn’t been there for about a month. Police say they believe Panya was under pressure from tensions between him and his wife and money problems.
Mass murders in Thailand are rare, but not unheard of.
In 2020, a disgruntled soldier opened fire in and around a shopping center in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, killing 29 people and holding back security forces for about 16 hours before being killed by them.
Prior to that, a bomb attack on a shrine in Bangkok in 2015 killed 20 people, allegedly by traffickers in retaliation for a crackdown on their network.
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