LAN SAK, Thailand: Weeping parents laid flowers and toys on the coffins of 20 children killed in a Thai school bus inferno, along with three teachers, as five days of funeral prayers began on Thursday (Oct 3).
Family members dressed in black gathered in the assembly hall of Wat Khao Phraya Sangkharam school in the northern province of Uthai Thani to console one another and pray for their loved ones.
A huge display of white flowers adorned the 23 coffins, which were topped with portraits of the dead and offerings of food, drink – and even toy trucks and dolls – to comfort the departed spirits.
Most relatives were too traumatised to speak to reporters, but one grandmother choked back sobs to tell of her pain.
“Their father went to work and left the boys with me, and he was to get them in the evening. I lost both of my grandsons,” she told local broadcaster Amarin TV.
Nattawin Tongyoy, a journalist for Thairath TV station, lost a cousin in the blaze.
“I am a reporter, I never think that this kind of news will happen to my cousin one day,” he told Thairath.
“They were children, there was no way they could have escaped.”
Buddhist monks will begin formal funeral prayers on Thursday evening, with King Maha Vajiralongkorn to be represented by the head of Thailand’s Privy Council.
The prayers will go on until a mass cremation expected on Tuesday.
Source: CNA
