But the aquamarine school building — where just under 300 pupils were enrolled — was shattered with the hallmarks of a blast as villagers roamed the site on Monday afternoon and Tuesday.

The corrugated roof was blown away with holes punched in the brickwork, an abandoned ball under pockmarked walls smeared with what appeared to be blood.

An exercise book lay open, showing geometry notes. Colourful unclaimed bags, some stuffed with blood-stained books, had been piled outside under a pole flying a Myanmar flag.

The community buried the victims on the same day as the air strike, scooping earth out of the hard-packed ground.

Over shrouded bodies, the children’s finest clothing had been draped on, and families wailed before onlookers covered the dead in earth with their bare hands.

“The children are innocent. They cannot even hold their pen or pencils firmly,” said Ko Min. “Why do they attack these children?”

Myanmar’s exiled self-declared “National Unity Government” said the youngest victim was seven-years-old.

‘Dark like night’

Myanmar has been riven by civil war since the military deposed the civilian leadership in 2021, with the junta suffering stinging losses to a myriad of anti-coup guerrillas and long-active ethnic armed groups.