‘I saw my grandson’s name and I fainted’: grief engulfs town after Thailand nursery attack

White sheets were pinned across the entrance to the children’s centre in Nong Bua Lamphu on Friday morning, shielding the site from view. On the nursery’s front steps, white flowers had been left as tribute.

In the baking sun, grieving families gathered outside the building where 37 people, most of them young children, had been shot and stabbed.

At a neighbouring building, relatives stunned by the events sat in rows, waiting to register their details with officials. Some wept, others leaned on one another’s shoulders for comfort. Many wore black.

One mother wept inconsolably, hugging her dead son’s favourite red-and-yellow blanket and his milk bottle, still half-full.

As the country struggled to come to terms with the brutal attack, the town of Uthai Sawan in Thailand’s rural north-east was overwhelmed with grief. As well as disbelief and shock, there was anger.

Nuankanjana Sola’s grandson was one of those killed in the gun and knife attack at the childcare centre in Thailand’s northeast. He was only four years old.

When she heard there had been an incident, she went to the centre immediately. “I rushed to check the name list, and I saw my grandson’s name and I fainted.”

“He was such a lovely child. He was talkative and playful. He was always asking me to buy some toys. I’m furious that the gunman did this to the children who had no power to protect themselves.”

The attacker, a former police officer, opened fire and stabbed children as they slept at the centre in 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 bystanders then returned home, where he shot himself, his wife and his child.

Police identified the attacker as Panya Khamrab, a 34-year-old former police lieutenant colonel who had been dismissed from the force since January for methamphetamine possession, and officially fired in June. He had appeared in court earlier on Thursday on a drugs charge and was due to appear again on Friday.

Anong Mumwan’s four-year-old nephew was killed in the attack and another relative was critically injured. She called for security guards outside childcare centres and better enforcement of drugs and guns.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life,” she said.

“I cried until I had no more tears coming out of my eyes. They are running through my heart,” said Seksan Sriraj, 28, whose pregnant wife was a teacher at the centre and was due to give birth this month, told AFP. “My wife and my child have gone to a peaceful place. I am alive and will have to live. If I can’t go on, my wife and my child will be worried about me, and they won’t be reborn in the next life.”

Mourners have gathered to place white roses on the steps of the childcare centre. Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images

Throughout Friday morning a line of parents placed white roses on the steps of the nursery. Buarai Tanontong and her daughter were among them. Both of her three-year-old grandsons were among those killed.

“I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t think that it would be my two grandsons,” she said, clutching her daughter.

Naliwan Duangkot, 21, who lost her two-year-old nephew Kamram at the nursery, comforted the boy’s mother, her 19-year-old sister-in-law Panita Prawanna.

“Before he passed away he wished to eat pizza. We were very sad that we didn’t buy pizza for him before,” Naliwan told AFP.

“He was very sweet, very kind, he always shared things with children, with everyone,” she said.

“We don’t accept that this is going to be his last night with his parents and his little sister.”

The family heard about Thursday’s shooting from neighbours. Panita and her husband rushed to the scene by motorbike to search for Kamram, only to learn the worst.

Cradling her 11-month-old daughter Kanta, Panita said the events of the past day were “incomprehensible”.

Nanthicha Punchum, acting chief of the nursery, described harrowing scenes as the attacker barged into the building in the rural district.

“There were some staff eating lunch outside the nursery and the attacker parked his car and shot four of them dead.”

Rabieb was driving near the centre as the attack unfolded. She describes hearing a loud bang but thought it was a firecracker.

“We lost one teacher who lives in our village. The feeling … it’s just sad.”

The Thai king is expected to visit the site of the tragedy later on Friday. Around the building where only two days ago scores of preschool children played, officials in white uniforms with black armbands laid a red carpet for the king’s visit.

With AFP