Grieving families pray at Thai temple for slain nursery victims

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is expected to attend an evening prayer at one of the temples later Sunday.

The mass killing on Thursday was the nation’s deadliest, with the perpetrator killing dozens at the Young Children’s Development Center in Uthai Sawan and wounding several others. He then left the daycare center and drove home, where he killed his wife and son before taking his own life.

Police identified the attacker as Panya Kamrap, 34, a former police sergeant fired earlier this year because of a drug charge involving methamphetamine.

An employee at the day care told Thai media that Panya’s son had attended the center but hadn’t 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 northeastern 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 was carried out at a shrine in Bangkok that killed 20 people, allegedly by human traffickers in retaliation for a crackdown on their network.