Their Majesties to visit massacre victims

Their Majesties to visit massacre victims

Privy councillors, advisers to the King and Queen, visit relatives of massacre victims at Udon Thani Hospital in Udon Thani province on Thursday. (Photo: Bureau of the Royal Household)
Privy councillors, advisers to the King and Queen, visit relatives of massacre victims at Udon Thani Hospital in Udon Thani province on Thursday. (Photo: Bureau of the Royal Household)

Their Majesties the King and Queen will visit victims of Thursday's preschool massacre in Nong Bua Lam Phu and Udon Thani provinces on Friday night, government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said.

The King and Queen would arrive at Wing 23 airbase in Udon Thani and then go to Nong Bua Lam Phu Hospital in Muang district of Nong Bua Lam Phu.

They would later travel to Udon Thani Hospital in Muang district of Udon Thani.

At both hospitals The King and Queen would visit the wounded and the families of victims and present them with baskets of supporting gifts.

Their Majesties would also sponsor the medical treatment of victims and their funerals. 

Shortly after noon on Thursday, a former police sergeant armed with a pistol and long meat cleaver rampaged through a child care centre, attacking children and adults, in tambon Uthai Sawan of Na Klang district, Nong Bua Lam Phu.

The killer had been expelled from the police force earlier year for methamphetamine abuse and was due in court the following day.  He murdered sleeping children and their teachers and killed more people while driving back to his home, where he killed his wife and child before taking his own life.

The national police chief said the murderer used his cleaver to kill most of the children, but also used his gun on victims.

Seven people wounded in Thursday's rampage were still being treated in hospitals, five of them were reported to be in critical condition.

It was the deadliest mass slaying ever in Thailand by a single person. In 2020, between Feb 8-9, an army soldier killed 30 people and wounded 58 others before he was killed by police at a downtown mall in Nakhon Ratchasima.

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