BANGKOK: A Japanese tourist was seriously injured after being chased, rammed and brutally assaulted by a group of suspected app-based riders in Pattaya before fleeing for his life to seek help at a nearby hotel.
At 4.39am on Saturday (March 21), patrol officers from Pattaya City Police Station were alerted to an assault on a foreign tourist who had been injured inside a hotel on Pattaya Sai 2 Road in Pattaya City.
Police rushed to the scene and coordinated with the Sawang Boriboon Thammasathan Rescue Centre in Pattaya City. At the scene, officers found the injured man identified as 25-year-old Kanasashi, a Japanese national.
He had suffered a head wound, facial swelling and bruising across his body. Rescue workers provided first aid before urgently transferring him to Pattaya City Hospital as he was in a serious condition.
A hotel security guard said that while patrolling the area, he saw the injured man run into the hotel seeking help. As the man was not a hotel guest, the guard quickly alerted police and allowed him to wait safely inside the hotel for patrol officers to arrive.
A Thai woman who witnessed the incident said she saw a group of around five to six motorcycles, believed to be app-based riders, chasing the victim from the area in front of Siam Bayshore Hotel.
The victim then fell to the ground and was set upon by the group, who allegedly taunted him, saying: “Do you think you are tough?”
A security guard at Siam Bayshore Hotel gave a matching account, saying the attackers had rammed the victim with their motorcycles before gang-assaulting him outside the hotel. The victim then managed to get up and run for help to another hotel about 500 metres away.
CCTV footage confirmed that several motorcycles had indeed chased the victim. Investigators are waiting to question the injured man further once his condition stabilises, while police are urgently reviewing surveillance footage in the area to track down the suspects and proceed with legal action. - The Nation/ANN
