Thailand was in mourning on Friday after 37 people were killed, most of them young children, in a brutal gun and knife attack at a preschool in the country southeastern.
The attacker, a former police officer, opened fire and stabbed children as they slept at the centre of Na Klang district in Nong Bua Lamphu province at about noon on Thursday, police and witnesses said.
As he left the nursery, the attacker drove his car towards and shot at the passers-by, returning home where he himself, his wife and his child was shot.
The Thai government ordered all Thai flags to be lowered to half mast on Friday, while prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha was expected to visit the area in the morning.
He said this shouldn't happen on Thursday. I feel deep sadness for the victims and their relatives. On Thursday night, pink and white coffins adorned with gold and bearing the bodies of the 22 children were driven away in the darkness.
All Thai people, and all others around the world who know about this will feel so saddened and depressed," said Anutin Charnvirakul, Thailand's deputy prime minister.
Some family members of those killed in the attack were still at the scene of the rampage late into the evening. Thai TBS TV reported that mental health workers sat with them.
A teacher told the broadcaster that the assailant jumped out of a car and immediately shot a man eating lunch outside, then fired more shots. The teacher had an opportunity to run inside when the attacker paused to reload.
I ran to the back, the children were asleep, said the young woman, who did not give her name, choking back her words. The children were two or three years old. Another witness said that staff at the day care centre had locked the door, but the suspect shot his way in.
The teacher who died, she had a child in her arms, the witness who didn't give a name, told Thailand's Kom Chad Luek television station. I didn't think he would kill children, but he shot at the door and shot right through it. Archayon Kraithong, a police spokeswoman, said at least 10 people were wounded, including six critically.
Mass shootings are rare in Thailand, but gun ownership rates are high. The attack comes two years after a mass shooting at a shopping mall in Nakhon Ratchasima, carried out by a soldier angry at his superiors.
In an editorial on Friday, the Bangkok Post said that both cases raise questions about the recruitment process employed by the army and the Royal Thai Police RTP. People will want to know how the RTP hired this man, who admitted to his superior that he had been taking narcotics since he was a teenager. He had been punished for bad behavior on a number of occasions. The attacker was identified as Panya Khamrab, a 34-year-old former police lieutenant colonel who had been dismissed from the force since January for methamphetamine possession and was officially fired in June. He had appeared in court earlier on Thursday on a drug charge and was due to appear in court on Friday.
Officials said that the results of an autopsy would determine whether or not he had taken drugs prior to the attack. We believe that it s because of the drugs and the stress of his court appearance, said Damrongsak Kittiprapat, the chief of police.
Politicians all over the world have offered their condolences, including British prime minister Liz Truss and Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese.
The UN Secretary-General Ant nio Guterres said he was deeply saddened by the heinous shooting at a childcare centre in Thailand. Learning centres should be places where children feel safe and not targeted.