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UTHAI SAWAN, Thailand: Grieving families gathered Sunday (Oct 9) at a Buddhist temple to pray and make offerings to the spirits of their deceased toddlers who were killed amid a rampage by a former police officer who shot and slashed them with knives at their day care in northeastern Thailand last week.
The mourning family members gathered at Rat Samakee temple, one of three temples where the bodies of the 36 victims — 24 of them children and most of them pre-schoolers — will be placed for funeral rites and cremation on Tuesday.
Relatives sat in front of the tiny coffins, praying while Buddhist monks around them chanted prayers. Later, they placed trays of food, toys and milk along the outside of the temple walls as offerings to the spirits of their slain children.
“Today, all the relatives will hold a ceremony to guide children’s souls back to the temple,” said Panida Prawana, a relative of a victim.
The mourning ceremony will continue for three days before the funerals and a cremation of the bodies according to Buddhist tradition.
Around a low fence surrounding the single-storey, pink-roofed nursery where just a few days ago youngsters played happily, piles of flowers built up, AFP reported.
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