Burmese fisherman stabbed 50 times

PHUKET TOWN: The body of a man believed to have been a Burmese fisherman was found behind the abandoned Phaya Thai Hospital building on Si Sena Rd yesterday. The victim had been stabbed some 50 times. Pol Maj Pitsanu Poonwong, of Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that local residents called the police after finding the body at 7:15 am. Officers arrived at the scene to find that the corpse, dressed in a black T-shirt, blue jeans and sandals, had multiple stab wounds to the neck, upper chest, stomach and back. “The weapon used appears to have been a sharpened steel reinforcing bar,” Maj Pitsanu said. He added that investigators estimated the man had been murdered at least six hours earlier. Local residents told officers that they had seen the man working aboard a fishing boat called “Por Pichai”, which has not appeared in the port since the murder. Although police have not been able to confirm the man’s identity or nationality, they believe he was Burmese because he had a tattoo of a Burmese letter on his upper right arm. Maj Pitsanu said that investigators believe the man was murdered while he was on his way home from a karaoke bar he was known to frequent, just 500 meters from where his body was found.