Thai man holds 9 year old son hostage on overpass and threatens to jump

A stressed Thai man held his nine year old son hostage and threatened to jump off an overpass over the Phetchkasem Road in Nakhon Pathom province in central Thailand yesterday, reports MGROnline.

Radio Centre 191 received a report that a stressed man holding his nine year old son hostage might jump off an overpass in front of Ban Nong Hin School in the Mueang district. He was estimated to be about 30 years old.

More than 50 people were deployed to de-escalate the situation, including police, staff from Nakhon Pathom Hospital, Officials from the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, and rescue workers from Suksalanukroh Foundation, reports DailyNews.

Crash mats and other equipment were brought to the scene to minimise damage in case the stressed man, named Ping, couldn’t be calmed down and jumped from the 20 metre high bridge clutching his son.

Police tried to negotiate but the man refused to come down. Ping told the police that he wanted to meet the new husband of his ex-wife, the boy’s mother. Police called Ping’s ex-wife to the scene to try and negotiate with him, but he wouldn’t come down, reports MGROnline.

After an hour of failed negotiations, police decided to charge in and use force to detain the unstable man and rescue the child.

Police took Ping to Nakhon Pathom Hospital for mental health assessments. Ping told the officers that he works as a security guard at a university.

A man who owns a windscreen wiper shop near the scene, 46 year old Preecha Juisom, told the police that Ping arrived with his son on a motorbike and circled two to three times before taking his son up onto the overpass.

The incident caused heavy congestion along both sides of the four-lane Petchkasem Road yesterday.

Police said that Ping will be interrogated further and undergo mental health assessments before being criminally charged.