Win War Bangkok: Dispute over passengers led to deadly motosai street combat

Police stand by as Saturday’s street battle rages in Udom Suk. Still image from a video posted to Facebook by user Aarise Chakonkun.
Police stand by as Saturday’s street battle rages in Udom Suk. Still image from a video posted to Facebook by user Aarise Chakonkun.

Four men have been arrested following Saturday’s deadly clashes between rival motorcycle taxi drivers in Bangkok’s Udom Suk area, which police now say only killed one.

Four suspects had been taken into custody as of Monday morning, two days after a 20-year-old man was killed on Soi Sukhumvit 103 during running street battles that began with a dispute over passengers, according to police.

“Everyone else involved with this will also get in trouble. So far we have issued arrest warrants for the seven key players of the incident from both sides of the gang,” said Nakorn Thongpanich, chief of Bang Na police, who is overseeing the case.

1 killed in Udom Suk motorcycle taxi battle royale

Police are reviewing video clips of the mass melee that shut down several lanes of traffic late Saturday morning as more than a dozen men swung at each other with improvised weapons.

“If you’re in the video, you will get summoned,” Nakorn said.

Only one person is now believed to have died in the violence. A second victim previously said to have succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in fact survived.

“At first we didn’t think he was going to make it, but they managed to revive him in the ICU,” Nakorn said of 33-year-old Watcharin Ngamchalao.

Questions have been raised about whether the slain Kerry deliveryman was an innocent bystander as originally believed. A man that looks like the deceased, 20-year-old Weerawat Peungcroot, appears to have been a party to the violence in images and another video clip.

Saturday’s street battle consisted of two shoot-outs. The first one had ended when footage of it went viral online, prompting the gangs resume their conflict anew.

The police have come in for criticism due to footage showing them making little effort to end the confrontation.



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