Thai childcare center reopens 3 months after massacre

Bangkok, Jan 4 (EFE).- The Thailand childcare center where a former police officer killed at least 20 children last year reopened on Wednesday, almost three months after the massacre that shocked the nation.

The nursery reopened in a new building three kilometers from the scene of the carnage in the northeastern province of Nong Bua Lamphu.

Local authorities held a religious ceremony the day before the childcare center reopened, a school official told EFE.

Buddhist monks prayed for the children and a pregnant teacher who lost their lives on October 6 when 34-year-old former police officer Panya Kamrab burst into the nursery and carried out a violent gun and knife attack.

The accused was expelled from the police department for drug possession.

After the massacre, the attacker fled in a white pickup truck to his house, where he murdered his wife and their son before committing suicide.

He ran over several people on his way to his house and killed 36 people, including 24 children.

A 3-year-old girl, who hid under a blanket in the school, and a boy, who has recovered from his head injuries, survived the massacre.

He had served as an officer until he was arrested for methamphetamine possession and expelled from the force.

Initially, the authorities indicated that he could have been under the influence of drugs.

But the autopsy found no drugs in his blood, indicating that he had not used them in the last 72 hours.

Shootings in Thailand are rare, but in 2020, a soldier killed 29 people and wounded 58 others in a massacre that spanned multiple locations, including a military camp and a large shopping mall in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima. EFE

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