Phuket Police are trying to track down a foreign man caught on CCTV assaulting a young Thai man while he was collecting money for entrance to a public toilet on Bangla Road in the early hours of May 3.
Despite the Facebook user who released the footage claiming that the “boy” attacked was 10 years old, police said yesterday that the victim was 20-year-old Abdulloh Saesaheh.
Abdulloh suffered blows to his left temple and an injury to his elbow, said Maj. Gornpon Liangboonjinda of Patong Police.
“We are investigating the attack and trying to gain more information in order to find the man and the group of people from the CCTV,” said Maj. Gornpon.
A video of the attack posted on Facebook by Abdulloh’s father from an account bearing the name “Tohee Seesa” went viral online, with more than 455,000 views over the past two weeks. The news has now made international headlines.
In the video post, “Tohee Seesa” offered a THB5,000 reward to find the man who struck his son.
The minute and-a-half video shows the 20-year-old sitting on a chair and using his phone before he is approached by a foreign man in a blue shirt accompanied by two foreign women.
The three foreigners are soon joined by another foreign man, who sits down to the side.
The foreigner in the blue shirt appears to question the two women with him, and then appears to yell angrily at Abdulloh, who begins to retrieve his mobile phone from his pocket.
The foreigner strikes the young man three times, and when Abdulloh tries to stand, the older man pushes him to the ground again.
“Abdulloh was listening to this man yell at him in English, but he could not understand any of it, so he tried to call his English-speaking friend to clarify what this guy wanted. That’s when the foreigner got angry and attacked Abdulloh,” reported Maj. Gornpon.
“According to Abdulloh, the two women in the video had already visited the toilets, but refused to pay the THB10 fee. They went to get their male companions, and returned with them to confront him,” Maj, Gornpon added.
Maj. Gornpon did not offer any explanation about why a foreigner would react so violently to paying such a small fee to use a toilet.
Story: The Phuket News
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