Mourners pray at Thai temple filled with keepsakes from nursery shooting victims

Relatives of the victims of a mass killing attack pray during a Buddhist ceremony at Wat Rat Samakee temple in the rural town of Uthai Sawan, north eastern Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. A former police officer burst into a day care center in northeastern Thailand on Thursday, killing dozens of preschoolers and teachers before shooting more people as he fled. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

Grief-stricken families have prayed at a Buddhist temple filled with children’s keepsakes, flowers and photos of the smiling toddlers who were killed as they napped on blankets at a nursery in north-eastern Thailand.

Coffins containing the 36 killed – 24 of them children and most of them pre-schoolers – were released on Friday and placed inside Wat Rat Samakee and two other temples in the town nestled among rice paddies in one of Thailand’s poorest regions.