Paweenuch Supolwong, 3, lost 24 classmates in the massacre (Picture: AP/Reuters)
A little girl, 3, napped through Thailand’s worst mass killing – miraculously emerging unscathed.
Paweenuch Supholwong was asleep on the floor and covered by a blanket when an attacker burst through the door of her pre-school and massacred 24 of her classmates and 12 others.
She is thought to be the only child at the day care centre to come out uninjured, with the gunman seemingly believing she was dead already.
Another child named Sumaee was stabbed and shot twice but survived after two bullets were removed from his head.
The rural township of Uthai Sawan has been shattered by the attack that robbed the farming community of much of its youngest generation in the blink of an eye.
Former police officer Panya Kamrap launched the attack before going home to kill his wife, child and himself.
He had been fired earlier this year due to a drug charge involving methamphetamine.
Sharing her daughter’s remarkable story, Panomplai Srithong said she found it hard to breathe when she and her husband were initially told no one had survived.
It’s thought the attacker believed her to be dead already (Picture: AP)
Mother Anonpai Srithong, 35, said she struggled to breathe when she learned of the attack (Picture: AP)
Flowers outside the day care centre in the province of Nong Bua Lam Phu, Thailand (Picture: Reuters)
After breaking down into pure panic, they received the astounding news that their daughter was alive and rushed to her side.
‘Breathing was difficult, I can’t describe it, but when I found out my child survived I was relieved’, Mrs Srithong said.
‘But I also wanted to know if she had any injuries, if there was any collateral damage.’
Paweenuch was sleeping so deeply, she doesn’t appear to have seen or heard the slaughters, her mother says.
Rescue workers carried her out of the building with her eyes covered so she didn’t have to see the bodies of her young classmates.
When she got out, she asked her grandmother where her best friend was.
‘That’s when she found out that her friend died’, Mrs Srithong said. ‘This was the person who was sleeping next to her.’
While her daughter survived, Mrs Srithong lost her cousin in the attack.
Rescue workers told Paweenuch to close her eyes so she wouldn’t have to see her friends dead (Picture: AP)
A woman cries after laying white roses on the steps of the nursery (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
Rescue workers carry a coffin containing the body of a victim at Udon Thani hospital (Picture: Reuters)
‘There’s both good luck hidden in bad luck — I’m lucky that my child is okay but I lost my cousin’, she said.
‘For other people, some lost an only child who was their hope.’
Uniting in grief, Thai people in Buddhist temples have tied dozens of white, yellow and red ‘soul strings’ to Paweenuch’s wrists in a bid to help her survive the horrific experience spiritually.
When someone suffers such a tragedy, they lose part of their soul, it’s believed.
‘It is to bring the spirit back into her body’, Mrs Srithong explained while holding her daughter. ‘It’s like the spirit had left the body and it is being called back.’
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The devastating attack took 36 lives – including 24 children.