Sharjah24 - AFP: Grief-stricken families prepared to begin funeral rites Friday for 36 people murdered by a sacked policeman who rampaged through a nursery armed with a gun and knife in one of Thailand's worst mass killings.
After a day of mourning at the scene of the bloodshed, coffins bearing the bodies of the victims -- 24 of them children -- were transported to temples on flat-bed trucks to be handed over to relatives.
King Maha Vajiralongkorn will later visit survivors in hospital -- a rare direct interaction with the public for the Thai monarch, who is officially regarded as a semi-divine figurehead.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha laid flowers at the nursery in rural northeastern Nong Bua Lam Phu province and handed out compensation cheques to grieving families.
At the small, low-slung building officials in white uniforms laid a large floral wreath on behalf of the king earlier in the day.
A line of heartbroken parents placed white roses on the steps of the nursery as the baking sun bore down.
The dead include pregnant teacher Supaporn Pramongmuk, whose husband posted a poignant tribute on Facebook.
"I would like to say thank you for all the support for me and my family. My wife has fulfilled her every duty as a teacher," husband Seksan Srirach wrote.
"Please be a teacher in heaven, and my child please take care of your mother in heaven."
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