People showed up at city halls and district offices in provinces such as Chiang Mai in the North, Khon Kaen in the Northeast, the resort island of Phuket on the southern Andaman coast and Yala in the deep South, to bid farewell to the beloved monarch.

State offices will fly flags at half-mast for 30 days as part of the mourning period.

With the Cabinet having declared yesterday as a special holiday, many loyal subjects attended prayers or make merit for His Majesty.

Newspapers flew off the shelves from early morning, as people tried to get a souvenir or historic record of their beloved monarch’s departure by collecting yesterday’s editions with extensive coverage of the historic event in stories and pictures.

In Phitsanulok’s Muang district, residents swept all newspapers from shelves. Wholesale bookstore, Siang Thip Book Centre, reported a 50 per cent hike in newspaper sales in a single day. Phitsanulok’s Channel 5 photo editor Bancha Wajasuwan, who owns Bancha Museum that featured a large collection of His Majesty’s portraits, said he bought all newspapers yesterday to keep because it was such an historic event.

In Rayong’s Muang district, Prasitsilpa Book Centre owner Kanda Jinanthuya said people showed up since early morning to buy newspapers to keep a record of His Majesty’s passing.

In Chon Buri’s Sri Racha district, local couple Prawin and Thanyanan Amphudsa displayed at their home more than 10,000 images of His Majesty and members of the royal family that they have collected over the past three decades. They wanted to express their love and loyalty to the monarch.

They said they planned to set up a LCD screen in front of their grocery shop to let people see the King’s hard work for the Thai people.

Thanyanan said she was grateful for the King teaching his self-sufficiency economy philosophy that enabled her family to have a constant income.

She broke into tears when she first heard the announcement of His Majesty’s passing. “I just cried out loud despite people looking at me,” she said, adding that she was so grief-stricken that she couldn’t sleep at night.

Sompong Kuankrathok, 60, a security guard based in Nakhon Ratchasima, said tears poured down his cheeks when he heard Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha confirm His Majesty’s passing on the radio. “We, Thais, will always be in gratitude for His Majesty. He will be in our hearts forever,” Sompong said.

Provincial police have teamed up with soldiers from the Second Army Region to patrol and keep order at symbolic sites and community areas in Nakhon Ratchasima, plus transport hubs and malls, to boost people’s morale and prevent any problems.