UPDATE: Koh Phangan shopkeep who smashed woman with bottle charged with assault
A fight that broke out at Phangan Island’s famed Full Moon Party ended in ugly fashion last night, as a local man violently smashed a glass bottle over a foreign woman’s head — an incident that was captured on video.
The video, viewed more than 3 million times in its first five hours on Facebook, shows a vicious brawl between two foreign women and two Thai men, who later told local media they were the owners of the pharmacy where the fight took place.
According to the men, one of the women was, allegedly, eating a snack outside a pharmacy, blocking the entrance. When they came outside to tell her to move, things, reportedly, got out of hand, according to Sanook.
Of course, none of that can actually be seen in the video. When the video is joined, the quartet is already in a bodily tug of war, grabbing each others heads. That ends when one of the men — dressed in black — grabs a nearby bottle and smashes it over the brunette’s head.
The fight immediately broke up after that. As fights generally do after someone has been bottled.
You may not be shocked to find out that this video already has thousands of comments. Most are taking the foreigner’s side, which is probably not all that surprising given that it features a man smashing a young woman over the head with a bottle (then threatening her with its jagged remains afterward).
“Great job. Amongst the many reasons tourists don’t come to Thailand nowadays, here’s another one,” a comment said. “You dickhead.”
“Let’s wait for the truth,” another commenter reasoned, while most other commenters have already taken the woman’s side.
Hours later, one of the men published full CCTV footage of the scene on Facebook (which has at press time been deleted but not before another Facebook user re-posting), in an apparent attempt to clear his name (and defend his friend who smashed the tourist).
“Watch it and see who started it,” user Ex Pitipat wrote. “I nicely and repeatedly told them not to block my store, but they wouldn’t move … we’re going to report the person who published the short version of the clip to the police.”
Guys, we don’t know how to break this to you, but it doesn’t matter who “started it.” Unless one of the women had a gun, there’s no scenario here in which you get away with smashing an unarmed person over the head with a bottle.
The majority of commenters seemed to agree, if anything, becoming more pissed off by his lack of remorse. Some even argue that the video shows the store owners starting the fight.
“I don’t see why you had to publish this video,” a comment said. “It’s not about who’s right or wrong — it’s about unjustifiable violence.”
Phangan police have, reportedly, summoned the two Thai men for questioning, according to Post Today. No charges have yet been issued.
Authorities are trying to track down the victim and her friend.
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