Less than a week ago, Thailand, and the world, were shaken by the country’s biggest mass killing by an individual in the country’s history.
The brutal knife attack and shooting at the nursery in the rural town of Uthai Sawan left 36 people dead, including 24 young children.
But miraculously, a 3-year-old boy, Sumaee, survived the horrifying incident despite being stabbed and shot twice in the head by the gunman.
Source: Sky News
Outside the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU), Sumaee’s mother told Sky News she was ridden with guilt after forcing her son to attend school that day.
On Thursday (6 Oct), ex-police officer Panya Kamrap opened fire in the nursery where children were taking their afternoon nap.
3-year-old Sumaee was stabbed and then shot twice in the head.
According to Sky News, Sumaee’s mother, Joy, went to school when she heard about the shooting. She was greeted with the horrifying sight of bodies and blood everywhere and fainted.
But moments later, her husband spotted Sumaee being carried into an ambulance.
Riding in the ambulance with him, Joy focused all her energy on reassuring her son.
“I was holding his legs and feet in the ambulance and trying to tell him to be strong”, she said.
Outside the Nong Bua Lamphu hospital ICU unit, Joy sat after Sumaee had the two bullets removed from his head.
Crying, she showed the Sky News reporter pictures and videos of her and her son together.
Joy was visibly distressed as she shared her latest exchange with her son.
Sumaee had begged her not to make him attend school that day. But with no knowledge of what would have unfolded, Joy had forced him to go to school.
Now, she was filled with regret about that decision.
Previously, it was believed that the only child survivor of the massacre was 3-year-old Ammy. She had slept through the deadly attack curled up in her blanket.
Later, she awoke next to the bodies of her other classmates, whom she thought were all asleep.
While Ammy and Sumaee’s survival was nothing short of a miracle, their friends had not been as lucky.
The knife attack and shooting had left 36 people dead, including 24 young children.
On Monday (10 Oct), makeshift furnaces made of clay bricks were built at Buddhist temples in the northeastern Thailand town of Uthai Sawan to cremate the victims.
Most of the victims are being cremated in a group ceremony on Tuesday (11 Oct) as relatives work through the final stage of this painful event together.
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), Panya’s motive for the killings and taking his own life may never be determined.
But police believe his financial and marital problems, as well as his history of drug use, are factors.
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Featured image adapted from Sky News and Le Monde.
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