Families have offered flowers, dolls, popcorn and juice boxes to children killed at a day care centre in Thailand as part of a Buddhist ceremony held on Sunday that was meant to guide the young souls back to their bodies.
“Come back home” and “come back with us”, the relatives called into the empty day care centre, many with tears in their eyes.
The gun and knife attack on the Young Children’s Development Centre in Uthai Sawan was Thailand’s deadliest mass killing and it robbed the small farming community of much of its youngest generation.
The former police officer who stormed the building killed two dozen people before taking more lives as he fled, including his wife and child, police said. He then killed himself.
Ceremonies were held on Sunday at three temples, where the 36 victims — mostly pre-school children — were taken ahead of funeral rites and cremation on Tuesday.
Maneerat Tanonethong — whose three-year-old son Chaiyot Kijareon was killed at the centre — said the rituals were helping her with her grief.
She said: “I am trying not to think about horrible images and focus on how lovely he was. … But I don’t know what I will do with myself once this is all over.
“I am determined that I will try let go of this, that I won’t hold any grudge against the perpetrator and understand that all of these will end in this life.”
At Rat Samakee temple, family members sat in front of the tiny coffins while Buddhist monks chanted prayers.
They placed trays of food, toys and milk along the outside of the temple walls as offerings to the spirits of their slain children.
Later, they headed to the day care centre and gathered in front of a makeshift memorial there to receive the children’s belongings.
They made offerings of their child’s favourite foods and lit incense and candles as they implored the children’s souls to return to their bodies.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is expected to attend evening prayers at the three temples where bodies were brought later on Sunday.
Police identified the attacker as Panya Kamrap, 34, a police sergeant fired earlier this year after being charged with a drug offence.
An employee at the day care centre told Thai media that Panya’s son had attended the facility but had not been there for about a month.
Police have said they believe Panya was under stress from tensions between him and his wife, and money problems.
Mass killings in Thailand are rare but not unheard of.
In 2020, a disgruntled soldier opened fire in and around a mall in the north-eastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, killing 29 people and holding off security forces for some 16 hours before being killed by them.
Prior to that, a 2015 bombing at a shrine in Bangkok left 20 people dead. It was allegedly carried out by human traffickers in retaliation for a crackdown on their network.
