Slaughtered during nap-time: One year on, the full story of how a drug-crazed cop killed 24 children at Thai nursery, hero toddler survived being shot twice and another slept through massacre – as families relive the horror
- On October 6, 2022 – during nap time at the local nursery – drug addicted ex-police officer Panya Khamrab forced his way into the building
It has been a year since a rural village in Thailand was left devastated by one of the most violent events in the kingdom’s modern history.
But long after the world’s media moved away from the close-knit community of Uthai Sawan, the people there who lost loved ones – many of them parents and grandparents of slaughtered children – are still coming to terms with the tragedy.
On October 6, 2022 – during nap time at the local nursery – drug addicted ex-police officer Panya Khamrab forced his way into the building.
With a knife and a gun he murdered 12 adults and 24 children – including his own wife and son – before killing himself to end one of Thailand’s deadliest massacres.
All but one of the children were aged five or under. Only two survived.
Among the dead are at least 24 children and multiple teachers after the brutal massacre carried out by a former policeman who then took his own life
The scene at the daycare centre hours after the horrific massacre where dozens were killed on October 6, 2022 by a drug-addicted ex-cop
On October 6, 2022 – during nap time at the local nursery – drug addicted ex-police officer Panya Khamrab (pictured) forced his way into the building.
Paweenuch Supolwong, known to her family by the nickname Ammy, was asleep under a blanket at the time of the attack, and miraculously was one of the two.
Now when she plays she is watched via CCTV – both at home and at nursery – to reassure her family that she is safe.
‘I’m still terrified,’ Paweenuch’s grandmother Yupin Srithong told reporters for AFP news agency, saying she did not want to send her back to school.
‘I don’t want to let her out of my sight.’
The attack still haunts Ammy, and loud bangs frighten her, Yupin said.
‘She’ll say ‘there’s shooting again’ and she’ll then ask me to hug her.’
Uthai Sawan – which translates roughly as ‘heaven’ – is about 300 miles north of Bangkok in Nong Bua Lam Phu province, one of Thailand’s poorest regions.
Like many families in the area, Ammy’s parents moved away for better-paid work in Bangkok, leaving her grandparents to look after her in their hometown.
At Yupin’s home, a shiny white camera stands out starkly on the old wooden ceiling. Her mother installed it after the attack so she could keep watch from afar.
There is a similar setup at the village’s temporary nursery, where Ammy and her friends are overlooked by a giant TV screen showing images from cameras monitoring every entrance to the compound.
‘They feel safe and at peace,’ said Nanticha Punchom, the head of Uthai Sawan Child Development Centre, who was at the nursery when the attack happened.
‘I have to tell myself that it’s already over and try not to think more about it,’ she told AFP reporters. ‘The CCTV cameras make me feel safer.’
Four-year-old Paweenuch ‘Ammy’ Supolwong is seen in August with her grandparents. She was one of two children to survive last year’s tragic massacre at the nursery
Banyen Srichanil holding a video clip of her three-year-old grandson Nannaphat ‘Stamp’ Songsermin, who was killed in the shooting on October 6 last year
The attack began on October 6 at 11.24am with ex-cop Khamrab driving a white Toyota pickup truck out of his home in Nong Bua Lamphu and to the nursery – a drive that typically takes around 50 minutes.
He pulled his vehicle up outside the Uthai Sawan Sub-district Administrative Organization, housed in a building that sits in the middle of farmland and shares a plot of land with the nursery. At 12.50pm, the attack began.
Armed with a 9mm pistol, a shotgun and a knife, he first fatally shot a father and son who were outside the administration building.
Despite the gunshots, the alarm was not yet sounded, with nearby residents mistaking the noise for fireworks.
With them dealt with, he moved on to the nursery during its lunch break where he attacked five members of staff, killing three of them.
One of the nannies had seen Khamrab attack the two people outside, and so tried to close the door to prevent him entering the nursery. He attacked her with a knife and forced his way in, where he killed the other two staff members as two more fled.
Among the dead was a teacher who was eight months pregnant. One of the slain women had been holding a child in her arms when she was shot.
None of them expected Khamrab to do what he did next.
A woman holds her head in her hands after surveying the scene at the nursery
A grief stricken woman is comforted on the floor outside the nursery in the wake of the bloodbath
With the staff out of his way, he entered the room where the children were napping and stabbed and shot more than two dozen children. The bodies of nineteen boys and three girls were later discovered in the nursery – slaughtered in their sleep.
Thinking he had left no one alive, Khamrab fled the scene in his pick-up truck.
While driving through the Nong Kung Si district, he fired off more rounds, shooting dead seven more people, and using the truck he also rammed bystanders, injuring a further two. At Tha Uthai Nuea village, he fatally ran over a villager. Of those he shot when driving through the village, three died on their way to hospital.
But even after all that death, he was not yet done.
With news spreading around Thailand of an active shooter situation, Khamrab returned home, pulled the truck up to his house and set it on fire using petrol.
He then stormed into the house and shot his wife and stepson Vorrapat dead, before turning the gun on himself.
In total, Khamrab killed 36 people, including at least 24 children. The ages of the victims ranged between three and 69 years. A further ten people were injured.
Miraculously, two children survived the attack.
Ammy was unscathed, hiding under a blanket. Another – a boy – survived despite being stabbed and shot twice in the rampage.
While Panya’s motive for the slaughter has never been established, the case evoked a host of demons that haunt Thailand: drugs, firearms and wealth inequalities. Khamrab’s wife (left and right) and stepson (right) were among the 36 people he killed that day
Pictured: Three-year-old ‘Ammy’, who miraculously survived the nursery massacre, is seen in the days after the attack in October 2022
This picture shows two twins who were slaughtered in the Thai nursery massacre
Eight-month-pregnant teacher Supaporn Pramongmuk (pictured left) was among the victims
While Panya’s motive for the slaughter has never been established, the case evoked a host of demons that haunt Thailand: drugs, firearms and wealth inequalities.
Khamrab was known as a regular user of methamphetamine – the highly addictive stimulant that is a scourge throughout Southeast Asia – and was sacked from the police for drug abuse.
His mother said he had graduated with a degree in law and attended the police academy, with his work in law enforcement beginning in 2012.
However, she said he may have taken drugs after he stopped working in Bangkok and was reassigned to his hometown region of Nong Bua Lamphu.
During his time there, he displayed violent behaviour. He had his weapon seized after firing his weapon at stray animals while with police colleagues.
It later emerged that he had been a drug addict since highschool, and in January 2022, he was arrested for possessing methamphetamine.
At the same time, he was being treated for mental health illness, having been dismissed from the police force either in 2021 or June 2022 due to his drug use.
Earlier on in the day of the attack, Khamrab had attended a court hearing in relation to his drug offences, and had another scheduled for the next day.
He had also been turned down for a job at the Uthai Sawan Tambon Administrative Organisation – which shared the same compound as the nursery.
Police understand that Khamrab had also separated from his wife, and had argued with her over a suspected affair on the morning of the attack.
Whatever the true reason was, however, he took it to his grave.
Today, outside the single-storey nursery with peach-coloured walls, toys and slides litter the cropped grass but the doors remain taped shut.
The Uthai Sawan Childcare Center is seen on August 30, 2023. Outside the single-storey nursery with peach-coloured walls, toys and slides litter the cropped grass
This photo taken on August 30, 2023 shows abandoned playthings inside the Uthai Sawan Childcare Centre, the site of a nursery mass shooting on October 6, 2022
Khamrab pulled his vehicle up outside the Uthai Sawan Sub-district Administrative Organization, housed in a building that sits in the middle of farmland and shares a plot of land with the nursery (pictured August 30). At 12.50pm, the attack began
This aerial photo taken on August 31, 2023 shows the field at Wat Rat Samakee Buddhist temple, where a mass outdoor cremation ceremony was held for victims of a nursery mass shooting on October 6, 2022
It is not clear what will happen to the building, though ground has been staked out for a new nursery barely 820 feet away.
A permanent memorial was ‘in discussion’, local official Danaichok Boonsom said.
After the attack, financial aid flooded into the district, much of it directed to bereaved families, and psychological help was offered as people tried to rebuild their lives.
Banyen Scrichanil, whose three-year-old grandson Nannaphat was among the dead, used some of the payout to renovate their home.
Gone are their home’s wooden walls, scuffed floors, and children’s toys. Banyen’s sobs echo against new white tiles and freshly painted walls.
‘I miss him every day. I dream about him every day,’ said the 58-year-old.
‘I see his face all the time. To think or talk about him makes me tear up,’ Banyen said as her husband Kham Pornnikhom passed her tissues.
Behind them a dark wood cabinet with toys and framed photographs of Nannaphat – known by his nickname Stamp – dominates the empty room.
‘It’s like there’s an open wound,’ she said.
Virtually everyone in the village has a connection to one of the bereaved families, with the whole community blanketed by grief.
Stamp’s grandfather Kham said they talk about him every day, but that some families wanted to leave the massacre in the past. ‘If you talk about the incident then they will say it’s hurtful and it’s better not to mention it,’ he said.
Their neighbours had urged the couple to move on.
‘But they’re not the one who lost someone so they can talk like that,’ said Banyen, scrolling through photos and videos of her grandson on her phone.
Just for a minute, the empty house is filled with noise from the videos.
Bouquets of flowers are placed against a gate leading to the nursery
Relatives gather in front of the coffins of victims of the nursery mass shooting at Wat Rat Samakee temple in northeastern Nong Bua Lam Phu province on October 9
Pranee Tunawa stands beside his wife Thongsa Tunawa (left) holding a photo of their three-year-old grandsons Aphiwut ‘Titan’ Manochart and Chaiyanon ‘Asean’ Thongpuban, who were killed in a nursery mass shooting on October
This photo taken on August 31, 2023 shows Buddhist abbot Maha Boonhome Sukhakamo laying a flower garland on the plaque of a victim of the nursery massacre
The massacre occurred in Nong Bua Lamphu, in the northeast of the Southeast Asian country
‘Beep beep!’ Stamp yells as he rides a small bike around the home.
Everyday moments – him brushing his teeth, slapping his bare belly after a bath, or showing the camera a grubby garden find – are replayed again and again.
‘Where are you right now?’ Banyen asked as silence crashed back into the room.
‘I miss you, Stamp.’
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