A small town in central Thailand is mourning the 23 who died in a school bus fire

LAN SAK, Thailand (AP) — A small town in central Thailand prepared for a somber mass funeral Thursday for the 23 children and teachers who died in a horrific bus fire while on a school trip.

Some residents and monks waited past midnight at Wat Khao Phraya Sangkharam, the Buddhist temple in Lan Sak town in Uthai Thani province, to receive the bodies of the dead returned from Bangkok. Also arriving back were relatives of the dead who went to the Thai capital to help identify the severely burned victims.

The school the children attended is on the temple grounds, a common location for schools in much of rural Thailand.

In the school’s assembly hall, florists came early to build a large display of white flowers in front of a line of coffins with portraits of the dead. An elderly woman wept in front of a photo of a 14-year-old boy before limping away, tears streaming down her face and and hands tightly clutching a black plastic bag. Relatives put food, snacks and beverages as offerings on top of the coffins — an act of respect symbolically sending nourishment and blessings to those who died.

The afternoon funeral was to be attended by the head of Thailand’s Privy Council as a representative of the royal family. King Maha Vajiralongkorn has declared a royal cremation ceremony will be held for the victims next week.

Six teachers and 39 elementary and junior high school students were on the bus that caught fire Tuesday on a highway in suburban Bangkok. It spread so quickly, only 22 were able to escape.

On social media, parents have expressed nervousness about sending children on school field trips as well as deep outrage about potential safety lapses.

Police were investigating whether the fire was caused by negligence and filed