Grief-stricken families have been gathering outside a Thai nursery where an ex-policeman murdered nearly two dozen children in one of the kingdom's worst mass killings.
Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha will later visit survivors of the attack that left at least 37 people dead, including the attacker's wife and child.
Around the small low-slung 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.
A line of heartbroken parents placed white roses on the steps of the nursery as the baking sun bore down on them this morning.
Buarai Tanontong's two three-year-old grandsons were among those killed at the nursery when the attacker burst through the door.
"I couldn't sleep. I didn't think that it would be my two grandsons," she said, clutching her inconsolable daughter's shoulder.
where nearly two dozen of their children were murdered
Earlier a palace representative laid a wreath from the royal family at the entrance of the nursery.
Overnight, coffins carrying the bodies of the victims - who include 23 children - arrived at a morgue in Udon Thani, the closest city to the rural district ripped apart by yesterday's three-hour rampage.
Armed with a 9mm pistol and a knife, sacked police sergeant Panya Khamrab opened fire on the childcare centre in the northeastern Nong Bua Lam Phu province at about 12.30pm (6.30am Irish time).
Following the attack, 34-year-old Panya fled the scene in a pickup truck to head home and murder his wife and child before taking his own life, police said, ending the killing spree around 3pm.
Flags on government buildings are flying at half-mast in a gesture of mourning for one of the deadliest days in recent Thai history.
Nanthicha Punchum, acting chief of the nursery, described harrowing scenes as the attacker barged into the building in the rural Na Klang district.
"There were some staff eating lunch outside the nursery and the attacker parked his car and shot four of them dead," she told AFP.
"The shooter smashed down the door with his leg and then came inside and started slashing the children's heads with a knife."
before taking his own life, police said
Local media reported that the dead included a school teacher who was eight months pregnant, and that one child survived because they were sleeping hidden by a blanket when the attacker struck.
National Police Chief Damrongsak Kittiprapat told reporters that Panya, a former police sergeant, was suspended in January and sacked in June for drug use.
He said the attacker - who used a legally purchased pistol - had been due in court on a drugs charge, adding that Panya was in a manic state but it was unknown whether it was drug-related.
Witness Paweena Purichan, 31, said the attacker was well-known in the area as a drug addict.
She told AFP she encountered Panya driving erratically as he fled the scene.
"The attacker rammed a motorbike into two people who were injured. I sped off to get away from him," she said.
"There was blood everywhere."
Video footage that Ms Paweena posted online showed a woman lying injured in a roadside bush after apparently being knocked off her motorbike by Panya.
Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha has ordered a rapid probe into the attack, which came less than three years after a soldier gunned down 29 people in a 17-hour rampage and wounded scores more before he was shot dead by commandos.
And less than a month ago an army officer shot dead two colleagues at a military training base in the capital Bangkok.
But while Thailand has high rates of gun ownership, mass shootings such as yesterday's are rare.
Distraught parents lay white roses
One by one, grieving parents came to lay single white roses on the steps of the Thai nursery where nearly two dozen of their children were murdered.
Some bowed their heads in prayer, some hugged each other in consolation as they laid the blooms on the steps of the low, yellow-walled building, tributes to 22 young lives cut short.
One mother wept inconsolably, hugging her dead son's favourite red-and-yellow blanket and his milk bottle, still half-full.
Outside the nursery, in a local government compound on the edge of a village deep in the green farmlands of northeast Thailand, scores of traumatised relatives gathered.
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," Ms Naliwan said.
"He was very sweet, very kind, he always shared things with children, with everyone," she said.
"Last night for him, he was very difficult and he asked if he could sleep with his parents, and his little sister," she said.
"We don't accept that this is going to be his last night with his parents and his little sister."
Community shocked
At the hospital in Nong Bua Lam Phu, the nearest town, relatives of the injured waited in turns at the ICU to visit their loved ones, bringing food, diapers and other supplies.
As the day wore on and the heat rose under the baking tropical sun, more and more people arrived at the nursery - the whole of a small rural community united in grief.
Where two days ago children played happily, now adults sat in shock, their disbelieving silence punctuated by occasional soft weeping.
Buarai Tanontong, 51, who lost two three-year-old grandsons, was among those left stunned by the events.
"I was very shocked and frightened. I couldn't sleep, I didn't think that it would be my two grandsons," she said as she clutched her distraught daughter's shoulder outside the nursery.
