Eight Buddhist monks died in northeastern Thailand on Thursday – and over a dozen more were injured – after an 11-year-old boy driving his parents’ truck crashed into pilgrims walking along a deserted rural road.
Images of the devastation, shared across social media, showed the bodies of orange-robed monks lying on the road with their alms bowls strewn across the accident site in Mukdahan province, about 600km northeast of Bangkok.
Five monks were killed at the roadside while three others died later at a hospital.
Fourteen monks were hospitalised in Mukdahan, where the provincial hospital began an appeal for blood donations to help treat a rare mass-casualty event.
“The suspect is a child,” commander of Mukdhan police Major-General Pairoj Thaiphutsa told reporters. “We have asked the child’s parents to come in so we can work out who is responsible for the child’s care before we proceed with the legal process.”
Mukdahan, a sleepy rural sprawl near the Laos border, is among Thailand’s poorest provinces. Buddhism plays a crucial part in daily life and temples are the centre of village communities.