King Maha Vajiralongkorn will later visit survivors in hospital a rare direct interaction with the public for the Thai monarch, who is officially regarded as a semi-divine figurehead.
Families grieving
prepared to begin funeral rites Friday for 36 people murdered by a sacked
policeman who rampaged through a nursery armed with a gun and knife in one of
Thailand's worst mass killings.
After a
day of mourning at the scene of the bloodshed, coffins bearing the bodies of
the victims -- 24 of them children -- were transported to temples on flat-bed
trucks to be handed over to relatives.
Prime
Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha laid flowers at the nursery in rural north-eastern
Nong Bua Lam Phu province and handed out compensation cheques to grieving
families.
At the
small, low-slung building officials in white uniforms laid a large floral
wreath on behalf of the king earlier in the day.
A line of
heartbroken parents placed white roses on the steps of the nursery as the
baking sun bore down.
The dead
include pregnant teacher Supaporn Pramongmuk, whose husband posted a poignant
tribute on Facebook.
"I
would like to say thank you for all the support for me and my family. My wife
has fulfilled her every duty as a teacher," husband Seksan Srirach wrote.
"Please
be a teacher in heaven, and my child please take care of your mother in
heaven."
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