Incendiary behavior sparks murder at Saphan Hin

SAPHAN HIN: Phuket City Police are investigating the fatal stabbing of man whose celebration of the Loy Kratong Festival with firecrackers allegedly angered a group of young revelers, two of whom allegedly stabbed him in the back while he was urinating.

Pol Capt Sathit Nurit, Duty Officer of the Phuket City Police, identified the victim as 29-year-old Apichart Kaewpanya, a resident of Damrong Rd in Phuket City.

After receiving a report of the stabbing just before 1 am Sunday, Phuket City Police rushed to the scene, a grass field along Klong Bangyai near the municipal tennis courts.

There they found the victim lying dead in a pool of his own blood with four stab wounds: two to the back, one to his left ribs and another to his head, just below the left ear.

The victim’s body was sent to Vachira Phuket Hospital for examination.

Capt Sathit said the victim had been drinking beer with a group of 10 friends, both male and female. Witnesses testified that he had been lighting off strips of firecrackers, possibly not realizing how much they had annoyed other groups celebrating the festival nearby.

“There were many groups of youths drinking around there. We suspect the victim’s assailants were among those in the group sitting nearest to his,” said Capt Sathit.

Police have a description of his assailants from the victim’s friends, but still do not know their names, he said.

“When we questioned the victim’s friends, they told us that K. Apichart left them to urinate in the klong. As he was relieving himself, his two assailants must have approached from behind and stabbed him before fleeing,” he said.

K. Apichart manged to walk back to his friends, but collapsed and died soon thereafter, he said.

A dagger and mobile phone found at the scene were collected as evidence.

“We need to continue questioning suspects, including many of the victim’s friends, in order to learn the identity of the assailants. There are a lot of eye witnesses in this case,” he said.