Wives bet in deadly drunken takraw match

PHUKET: A drunken takraw match, the renowned game of “foot volleyball” using a rattan ball, got out of hand in Rayong early last month after construction workers bet their own wives as collateral during the game.

When a fight broke out and one member of the group pulled out a gun, the weapon went off, hitting a 27-year-old woman in the neck. Wassana Thianthaisong died later in hospital.

Around 7:30pm on August 11, Inspector Thanit Seniwong Na Ayutthaya of the Rayong Police received word that someone had died in Bangkok Hospital Rayong after being shot.

He rushed to the scene, a workers’ camp behind the Banyan Terrace condominium building under construction in Nernphra Subdistrict of the Eastern Seaboard province.

At the scene he found four 9mm bullet casings next to the project office.

He also found 49-year-old Khamphon Manirat, managing director of the company developing the project, holding a gun. He was deathly pale.

Mr Khamphon told police he had killed Mrs Wassana, who was his niece and worked for the company in the accounts department.

Before the incident, the project’s electricians and plumbers were playing the builders at takraw.

According to Mr Khamphon, the workers were very drunk – and had bet their own wives as “prizes” for the winners of the game.

Mr Khamphon said that he thought the “bets” were too much and suggested that the losers of the game have a fight instead.

An argument broke out and the construction workers moved to attack him, so he pulled out a gun.

He fired shots in the air to scare them off. But one electrician, 30-year-old Tan Bunthong, tried to take the gun away from him.

In the melée, the weapon went off again, hitting Mrs Wassana in the neck as she sat working in the office.

She was rushed to hospital but died of her injuries.

— The Daily News