Brawl between taxi and Bolt riders erupts outside Pattaya Police Station

Police officers intervened in a physical altercation between a motorcycle taxi rider and a group of app-based drivers, reportedly Bolt, outside Mueang Pattaya Police Station last night, October 31.

This year’s Halloween evening turned violent in Pattaya when a Bolt rider attempted to attack a motorcycle taxi driver with a broken glass bottle. The taxi rider also prepared for the fight by pulling out a knife and pointing it at the Bolt rider.

The altercation took place in front of the police station, allowing officers to intervene in time. The officers took the Bolt rider and his colleagues into the police station for further questioning.

However, chaos erupted again when the taxi rider refused to give up the fight and followed the Bolt riders into the police station. Channel 7 reported that a police officer shouted to control the situation.

“This is a police station! Stop!”

A witness, who is also a motorbike taxi rider, told Channel 3 that the two parties had been in conflict earlier and their anger was still raw. When a group of Bolt riders spotted a rival taxi rider, they approached him and started a heated argument.

The witness added that he saw that both had weapons in their hands and decided to report the matter to the police. However, the witness did not give details of their earlier conflict to the media.

According to the report, both parties face two charges including:

• Section 299 of the Criminal Law: conspiring at least three people to engage in chaos and physical altercation. The penalty will be imprisonment of up to one year, a fine of up to 20,000 baht or both.
• Section 370 of the Criminal Law: causing loud noise or acting in a noisy manner which makes others frightened and annoyed. The penalty will be a fine of up to 1,000 baht.

A fight between motorcycle taxi riders and Bolt riders in Pattaya is now a new phenomenon, a brawl previously broke out in January.

The taxi riders complained to the Bolt riders that they were encroaching on their designated area, so they asked the Bolt riders to leave, which angered the Bolt riders. One of the Bolt riders allegedly took an iron bar and a baseball and beat up the taxi riders.

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