3-year-old girl was unharmed in Thailand massacre for sleeping under blanket

As the horror unfolded in the classroom of a daycare center in Uthai Sawan, northeast Thailand, in the corner of the room a three-year-old girl was sleeping soundly under a blanket, which even hid her face. Her parents believe this is what saved her life.

According to them, Paveenut Supolwong, nicknamed Ammy, is normally a light sleeper, but at nap time last Thursday (6), for some reason he didn’t wake up when a man entered the place with a gun.

Ammy was the only child at the daycare to escape unscathed from the massacre perpetrated by former police officer Panya Kamrab, which killed 37 people, including 24 children aged two to five years – most of them stabbed to death. The episode took place in the early afternoon, local time, in the city 500 kilometers from Bangkok and ended with the attacker killing his own wife and four-year-old son before committing suicide.

As the police reported on Friday (7), three boys and a girl survived, after being stabbed in the head region – all four were treated by neurosurgeons and are in stable condition.

“I feel so sorry for the other families, while I’m glad my daughter survived. It’s a mixture of sadness and gratitude, I’m in shock,” said Ammy’s mother, Panompai Sithong. “She’s not a deep sleeper. I believe there must be spirits covering her eyes and ears.”

Another relative told local media that her survival was a miracle.

This Sunday (9), the family home received journalists, who wanted to know the girl’s story, while relatives and neighbors shared reflections on the tragedy and Ammy played in the backyard with a flowered dress and an amulet tied around her neck.

Her parents said she doesn’t seem to remember the massacre. After the ex-cop left the day care, someone found her moving around in a corner of the room — and rescued her by keeping her head under the blanket so she wouldn’t see the bodies of her classmates; 11 of them died on the spot.

One of them was two-year-old Techin, Ammy’s best friend. “She was asking her grandmother, ‘Why don’t you pick up Techin at school?'” said the mother, making it clear that she still doesn’t know the extent of the tragedy she has lived through.

The massacre became one of the deadliest in Thai history and shook the country. King Maha Vajiralongkorn visited the hospital where the wounded were taken, and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha left flowers at the daycare and met with the victims’ families; His spokesman said that the government will do its best to take care of those affected.

During the victims’ funeral on Friday, relatives fainted and had to be treated by doctors. In addition to the dead, the attack left at least 12 wounded – according to the authorities, within a two-hour period the attacker also ran over several people as he fled the day care center and shot neighbors.

In the city of Uthai Sawan, few were unaffected by the massacre. On Sunday afternoon, a religious leader conducted a Buddhist ceremony to comfort children who are going through negative experiences. Ammy’s family attended the service, with the little girl sitting on her mother’s lap and playing with two candles she held; her wrists were tied with white thread for good luck.

At the end of the ceremony, relatives splashed rice wine from a silver bowl on each other and shouted their best wishes — a rare moment of joy in a city steeped in grief.

Since dawn on Sunday, families of victims have gathered in temples where coffins are being kept. According to local traditions, they bring treats and toys to the souls of the dead.

The episode is one of the worst solo attacks involving children in history. In 2011, in Norway, the far-right militant Anders Brevik killed 69 people, mostly teenagers, in a summer camp. Other cases include the 1996 Dunblane massacre in Scotland, in which 16 children died; and the one in Uvalde, Texas, this year, in which 19 children were killed.

Thailand is one of the countries with the most weapons in circulation in the world, and officials have long been concerned about the potential for gun violence.