Motorbike gang accused of arson attack

PHUKET CITY: A second police booth has been destroyed by fire, leading police to believe that a earlier, similar incident was not due to an electrical fault, as was previously thought.

Police received reports of the latest fire, at the police booth at the intersection of Wichit Songkram Rd and the bypass road, at 2:30 am yesterday.

Pol Col Kokiat Wongvorachart, Deputy Commander of Phuket Provincial Police told the Gazette, “It took about 20 minutes to stop the fire, but by that time we’d lost the TV monitor, the traffic light control system, seats and the air conditioner. The total damage comes to about 400,000 baht.”

On June 18 a police booth burned down at the intersection of Patipat Rd and Ranong Rd. At the time, police said they believed the fire to be the result of an electrical fault. Now, however, they believe an unsavory pattern is emerging.

“We now believe that both arson attacks were the work of members of a teenage bike gang,” Pol Col Kokiat explained.

“We have been staging roadblocks to prevent them racing on public roads and this has annoyed them. On Saturday night we set up a roadblock in the Saphan Hin area. Later, the teenagers gathered in front of Wat Sansuk on Ong Sim Pai Rd. Some of them must have gone from there to the booth and set it on fire.”

He added that police found bottles of beer, a motorbike wheel and cigarettes near the scene of the crime.

“We had our monthly meeting today in which we discussed the problem of teenagers and came up with a plan to deal with the problem.” Pol Col Kokiat added.