Mourners attend cremation ceremonies after policeman kills 36 people, 24 of them children

Hundreds of mourners and victims’ families have gathered to watch flames burn from rows of makeshift furnaces at cremation ceremonies for the young children and others who died in last week’s mass killings in Thailand’s rural northeast.

Families bid their final goodbyes at a Buddhist temple a short distance from the Young Children’s Development Centre in the town of Uthai Sawan, where a former policeman, who was fired from his job earlier this year for using drugs, barged in and shot and stabbed children and their caregivers.

Attack that left 37 dead was carried out by former police officer dismissed from the force for methamphetamine possession

The Thai prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, has ordered a clampdown on drugs, including an emphasis on rehabilitation, following the mass shooting and stabbing at a nursery in north-eastern Thailand that left 37 people dead, mostly young children.

The unprecedented attack has shaken Thailand, where mass killings are rare, and prompted calls for a tougher stance on drugs. It was carried out by a former police officer, identified by police as Panya Khamrab, who had been dismissed from the force for methamphetamine possession.

Families tell of the moment they heard about gun and knife attack that killed 37 people, most of them children

On Friday morning, in the baking sun, grieving parents filed in a line to leave flowers outside the Uthai Sawan nursery school in northern Thailand. Women dressed in black and with heads bowed each placed a white rose on the entrance steps.

A mother, standing at the side, clutched her son’s red blanket and his milk bottle, still half-full.

Threats of mass protests after former general Prayuth Chan-ocha judged not to have exceeded term limit

Thailand’s constitutional court has allowed the prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, to remain in his job after suspending him in August while it considered whether he had overstayed his term limit.

The court ruled Prayuth, a former army general who first came to power in a military coup in 2014, had not yet reached the limit of his term, even though prime ministers are barred from serving for more than eight years under Thailand’s constitution. The case had been brought by opposition MPs who argued Prayuth had violated the limit.

Surprise move by constitutional court throws Thai politics into confusion

Thailand’s prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, has been suspended from office by the constitutional court while it considers whether he has overstayed the limits of his term.

The court agreed to hear a case brought by opposition MPs, who say Prayuth, who came to power in a coup in 2014, should have left office this week. Under Thailand’s constitution, prime ministers are barred from ruling for more than eight years.

Scenes of panic and desperation as revellers flee blaze in Chonburi province, 90 miles from Bangkok

Thailand’s prime minister has ordered an investigation into a massive blaze that tore through a nightclub, killing at least 14 people.

The fire broke out about 1am on Friday at the Mountain B nightspot in Chonburi province’s Sattahip district, about 90 miles south-east of Bangkok.