UTHAI SAWAN, Thailand (AP) Relatives grieving staggering loss Friday created a makeshift altar of flowers, juice boxes and a stuffed animal at a day care center where a fired police officer slaughtered dozens of people, including preschool children who were napping.

The entire country reeled in the wake of Thursdays grisly knife and gun attack in a small town nestled among rice paddies in one of the nations poorest regions. At least 24 of the 36 people killed in the assault, Thailands deadliest mass killing, were children.

I cried until I had no more tears coming out of my eyes. They are running through my heart, said Seksan Sriraj, 28, who lost his pregnant wife due to give birth this month in the attack at the Young Childrens Development Center in Uthai Sawan.

My wife and my child have gone to a peaceful place. I am alive and will have to live. If I cant go on, my wife and my child will be worried about me, and they wont be reborn in the next life, he said.

A stream of people, including Prime Minster Prayuth Chan-ocha, other government representatives and relatives themselves, have left flowers at the day care center. By afternoon, bouquets of white roses and carnations lined the wall outside, along with five tiny juice boxes, bags of corn chips and a stuffed animal. A faded Thai flag flew at half-staff above.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida were expected later in the day to go to hospitals, where seven of the 10 people wounded remain. A vigil was planned in a central park in Bangkok , the nations capital.