Grief-stricken families prepared to begin funeral rites Friday for 36 people murdered by a sacked policeman who rampaged through a nursery armed with a gun and knife in one of Thailand's worst mass killings. After a day of mourning at the scene of the bloodshed, coffins bearing the bodies of the victims - 24 of them children - were transported to temples to be handed over to relatives. King Maha Vajiralongkorn will later visit survivors in hospital - a rare direct interaction with the public for the Thai monarch, who is officially regarded as a semi-divine figurehead. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha laid flowers at the nursery in rural northeastern Nong Bua Lam Phu province and handed out compensation cheques to grieving families. At one temple, 10 white and gold coffins, some so small they looked like toy boxes, were loaded into fridges in the evening ahead of the customary three days of mourning before cremation. A young father, his face a mask of tears, staggered away from other mourners after watching his son's coffin loaded away. Earlier at the small, low-slung nursery, a line of heartbroken parents placed white roses on the building's steps as the baking sun bore...
↧