Thai massacre: Children slain while having afternoon nap

Portraits of child victims are displayed at the top of their coffins for the funeral rituals at the Wai Si Uthai temple in Na Klang in Thailand's northeastern Nong Bua Lam Phu province on Oct 7, 2022. - AFP

UTHAI SAWAN, Thailand (Reuters): It was nap time at Uthai Sawan Child Development Centre in northeastern Thailand and 24 children aged 2 to 5 years were bedded down at evenly spaced spots on the wood-panelled floor.

All seemed calm until an ex-cop armed with a gun and knife stormed into the daycare centre, with on duty staff unable to stop him. The former police sergeant shot at the door of the room where the children slept and killed 22 of them, mostly with a knife, in a rampage that resulted in one of the worst massacres of children by a single killer in recent history.