Grief-stricken families prayed on Saturday at a Buddhist temple filled with children’s keepsakes, flowers and photos of the smiling toddlers who were slain as they napped on blankets at a day care centre in north-eastern Thailand.

Coffins containing the 36 killed, 24 of them children and most of them preschoolers, were released on Friday and placed inside Wat Rat Samakee and two other temples in the town nestled among rice paddies in one of Thailand’s poorest regions. Several mourners stayed at Wat Rat Samakee overnight in the tradition of keeping company for those who died young.