“Chicken feeding’ lands Thai tourists in trouble

PHNOM PENH (AFP): A group of 28 Thai tourists visiting Cambodia’s famed temples of Angkor had to be rescued by police after being surrounded by a mob enraged at their treatment of temple beggars, a report in a Cambodian newspaper said today. The tourists – reportedly laughing and throwing candies to throngs of scrambling urchins – were escorted by police back to their hotel in Siem Reap after being surrounded by about 400 enraged Cambodians. “With strong protection, the tourists and their cars were escorted to the Salina Hotel, but the angry people chased them all the way there … The mob could not enter the hotel because security guards and police forces were deployed around it,” said the Khmer-language Koh Santepheap Daily. “Six to seven shots were fired by the police at the hotel,” it added. It said at least four Cambodians were injured in scuffles with guards outside the hotel. “This was like feeding chickens,” the paper said of the scramble, during which the Thai tourists were said to have placed buckets on the heads of some of the children and laughed, clapped and taken pictures. “The incident won’t affect tourism in Cambodia, but it is a warning to Thai tourists not to look down on Khmers; to warn them that this should not happen again,” the newspaper commented. Tight security was maintained around the hotel overnight. The Thai tourists, who had arrived by road from the border, left town yesterday morning under police escort.

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