Families endure grief's 'open wound' a year after Thai nursery massacre

NA KLANG, Thailand — Clutching a well-worn teddy named "Little Bear", Paweenuch Supolwong fiddles with Buddhist amulets hanging heavy on her neck as her grandmother tells of the trauma still afflicting the four-year-old.

Paweenuch, known by the nickname Ammy, was one of only two children to survive a massacre at a Thai nursery a year ago that killed 36 people and devastated the close-knit rural village of Uthai Sawan.

Now when she plays she is watched via CCTV -- both at home and at nursery -- to reassure her family.

"I'm still terrified," Paweenuch's grandmother Yupin Srithong told AFP, saying she did not want to send her back to school.

"I don't want to let her out of my sight."

During the children's nap time on October 6 2022, ex-police officer Panya Khamrab forced his way into the nursery.

With a knife and a gun he slaughtered 12 adults and 24 children, all but one aged five or under, before killing himself to end one of the deadliest massacres in the kingdom's history.

Asleep under a blanket, Ammy miraculously survived, but the attack still haunts her. 

Loud bangs frighten her, Yupin said.

"She'll say 'there's shooting again' and she'll then ask me to hug her."

Uthai Sawan -- which translates roughly as "heaven" -- is about 500 kilometres (300 miles) north of Bangkok in Nong Bua Lam Phu province, one of Thailand's poorest regions.

Like many families in the area, Ammy's parents have moved for better-paid work in Bangkok, leaving her grandparents to look after her.

At Yupin's home, a shiny white camera stands out starkly on the old wooden ceiling. Her mother installed it after the attack so she could keep watch from afar.

Outside the single-storey nursery with peach-colored walls, toys and slides litter the cropped grass but the doors remain taped shut. 

It is not clear what will happen to the building, though ground has been staked out for a new nursery barely 250 metres (820 feet) away.

A permanent memorial was "in discussion", local official Danaichok Boonsom told AFP.

For now, Ammy and her friends play at a temporary nursery -- overlooked by a giant TV screen showing images from cameras monitoring every entrance to the compound.

"They feel safe and at