Thailand attack: Country mourns after 37 killed, mostly children

Thailand is mourning a horrific gun and knife attack at a childcare centre in the north-east that left 37 people, including 23 children, dead.

Flags across the country are flying at half-mast as the devastated nation grapples with a tragedy that saw a former policeman storm a nursery in Nong Bua Lamphu province.

Victims as young as two were attacked as they slept.

Police say the attacker then killed himself and his family after a manhunt.

The former officer, aged 34, was sacked in June for drug use, police added. The motive for the attack is not yet known.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is set to arrive in to the town of Utthai Sawan, in the rural north-east of the country later on Friday. Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn, together with the Queen, are also due to make their way to the community on Friday.

Overnight, pink and white coffins adorned with gold, bearing the bodies of the children, were brought to a hospital morgue in Udon Thani and laid out in rows.

Rescue workers had earlier brought the bodies of the victims to the police station, where families of the dead had gathered. Distraught relatives had also waited outside the daycare centre into the night.

On Friday morning, many of them had gathered outside the building, with some weeping inconsolably, according to an AFP report. Dozens also showed up to pay their respects.

Police said the armed attacker broke into the building just after lunch time on Thursday, shooting his way past a teacher and parent outside.

Witnesses said he first shot staff - including a teacher who was eight-months pregnant- before forcing his way past teachers into a room where children were napping.

Police said he stabbed most of his victims before fleeing.

Headteacher Nanticha Panchum told the BBC she had just sent the children off for their nap when she heard gunshots.

Usually the centre looked after 92 children on site but because of poor weather and a bus breakdown, there were only 24 there at the time.

Only one child survived, Ms Nanticha said.

"This is something I never dreamed of… I don't know what to do next. I really can't think of anything at the moment," she told the BBC.

The attacker's son went to the centre but hadn't been attending for a month, she said. He was recognised by one of her colleagues when he burst in.

Soon after news of the attack emerged, Thai Police published an online manhunt appeal - identifying the man as Panya Kamrab, a local man. He was a former officer who had been fired in June for drug use, police later said.

Officers who rushed to the nursery were confronted with the bodies of adults and children, some of them very young, lying inside and outside the building.

"We found that the perpetrator tried to break in and he mainly used a knife to commit the crime by killing a number of small children," said Police Chief Damrongsak Kittiprapat.

"Then he got out and started killing anyone he met along the way with a gun or the knife until he got home.

"We surrounded the house and then found that he committed suicide in his home."

Police said Kamrab returned home, killing his wife and son before taking his own life.

He had appeared in court the morning of the attack on charges related to the use and possible sale of methamphetamine. He had been due to face a verdict on Friday.

Mass shootings in Thailand are rare, although gun ownership rates are relatively high for the region. Illegal weapons are also common in the south-east Asian country, according to the Reuters news agency.

The nursery attack comes less than a month after an army officer shot dead two of his colleagues at a base in Bangkok.