BANGKOK (AP) — Police in Thailand searched Monday for suspected members of teenage gangs involved in a shooting that killed a nearby Indian tourist and injured four others, two critically, outside a Bangkok shopping arcade.
Police spokesman Col. Krissana Patanacharoen said the shooting occurred Sunday night after a group of teenagers got into a heated argument and opened fire at each other near the parking lot of the Centara Watergate Pavilion arcade. He said a group of tourists that was waiting to board a bus was caught in the crossfire.
Police Lt. Col. Kasem Pipitkul, the investigator in charge of the case, said four people were hospitalized — an Indian and a Laotian who are in critical condition and two Thais.
Krissana said police are examining bullet casings, interrogating witnesses and viewing security camera video to try to identify the shooters, who fled the scene.
Maj. Gen. Surachet Hakpal, commissioner of the immigration bureau, said the shooting stemmed from an earlier dispute between two groups of teenagers whose conflict flared Sunday night when they began drawing weapons at a nearby snooker club. He said one of the groups had an AK-47 rifle.
Surachet said police will close off the country's borders to the suspects once arrest warrants are issued for them.
He said he has also instructed immigration officers to extend the expiring tourist visa of the Indian citizen being treated in a hospital.
"They traveled here for a vacation and were hit by a stray bullet," Surachet said of the tourists. "They didn't know anything."
Disclaimer: This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Associated Press (AP) wire.
