British tourist Leigh Banks was stabbed and seriously wounded by an employee for an illegal tour bus in Samut Sakhon today.
He was attacked and stabbed in the left torso over an argument about valuables that he said disappeared from his wallet which he had forgotten on the bus.
A passerby helped send him to Mahachai 1 Hospital where he received emergency treatment. Before the incident, Mr Banks and his wife, and another 20 passengers travelled by the bus from the southern province of Surat Thani to Bangkok, MCOT reported.
Other passengers got off the bus along the way and only the couple was left on the bus. The bus stopped at a petrol station in Samut Sakhon, where the driver told them to wait for a new bus take them to Bangkok.
After taking their two bicycles from the bus and the bus departed Mr Banks realised that he had left his wallet with cash in US dollars and his passport on the bus, and he called the bus driver to return.
The bus came back to the petrol station and Mr Banks found that his wallet had been searched by someone and his valuables were missing. He asked a bus worker and the two men quarrelled. The staff worker stabbed the tourist before fleeing by the same bus.
His wife asked for help and a Thai woman, a passerby identified as Sumalee Yisunkaew, drove to a petrol station and called an ambulance for them and also called the police.
The police are searching for the bus, which was initially found to be operating illegally, that is without proper licensing to transport tourists.
