Thai day care massacre victims prepared for funeral rites

Families of victims in last week’s massacre at a day care center gathered Tuesday at Buddhist temples in rural northeastern Thailand for the start of a shared cremation ceremony that marks an end to three days of funeral rites.

The gun and knife attack carried out by a former policeman Thursday on the Young Children’s Development Center in Uthai Sawan killed 36 people, including 24 children.

On Tuesday morning, many of the young victims’ bodies were outfitted as doctors, soldiers or astronauts — what they wanted to be when they grew up — before they were to be cremated in the evening.

Volunteer rescue worker Attarith Muangmangkang said his organization arranged for the costumes and assisted the families with changing the victims’ outfits Tuesday.

“The more we talked (to the families), we realized that these children also had dreams of becoming doctors, soldiers, astronauts,…