Eight students held after rival groups brawl on packed Bangkok skywalk
A morning commute through one of Bangkok’s busiest shopping districts saw a brawl between two rival student groups on the skywalk this past Friday, with four hospitalised.
Pathum Wan police received the report at 7.50am, as students were on their way to class. Officers arrived to find a group of students trading punches and kicks on the elevated walkway. Passers-by scattered to avoid being caught up in it.
Emergency medical staff and rescue foundation volunteers treated the injured at the scene. Four students were taken to Hua Chiew Hospital with what responders described as severe wounds. No weapons were reported.
Police detained eight students over the brawl. Both groups came from well-known educational institutions near the scene. Officers said they are preparing legal action rather than releasing the students with a warning.
The Pathum Wan skywalk network links some of the city’s largest malls and mass transit stations, carrying heavy foot traffic at exactly the hour the fight broke out.
Rivalries between vocational and technical institutions have produced street violence in Bangkok for decades, and the skywalk has featured before. Police have floated a Pathum Wan model that would combine closer monitoring of known flashpoints with intervention through the schools themselves.
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