A small town in central Thailand is mourning the 23 who died in school bus fire

Officers carry a coffin of a bus fire victim as they arrive at Wat Khao Phraya Sangkharam School Lan Sak, Uthai Thani province, Thailand (Sakchai Lalit/AP)

A small town in central Thailand prepared for a sombre mass funeral on Thursday for the 23 children and teachers who died in a horrific bus fire while on a school trip.

Some residents and monks waited past midnight at Wat Khao Phraya Sangkharam, the Buddhist temple in Lan Sak town in Uthai Thani province, to receive the bodies of the dead returned from Bangkok.