Woman found unconscious, half-naked on Phuket roadside

PHUKET: An unconscious woman was found yesterday morning on a Phuket roadside, naked from the waist down with blood pouring from her head.

The 58-year-old, whose name is undisclosed, may have been raped, Thalang Police Lt Col Weerayut Sittirattanakul said.

At about 5am yesterday, Thalang Police received a report of a woman lying unconscious near a parked motorbike on the side of Srisoonthorn Road, about 3km west of the Heroines’ Monument.

Local residents said they had earlier heard an “accident” and came out to see what had happened, Lt Col Weerayut said.

“They saw one man lying unconscious on the side of the road. Another man, who [witnesses said] seemed to be drunk, was fighting with the woman. The witnesses then went back into their houses,” he said.

“Later they found her lying unconscious and called the police.”

The two men were more than 30 years old, witnesses said.

The woman had a deep wound to her right eyebrow and bruising between her chest and stomach.

“It’s not clear whether she got these wounds from a motorbike accident or if someone hit her with a blunt object,” Lt Col Weerayut said.

Police will await a doctor’s report to see if the victim had also been raped, he added.

The woman may have had an accident with another motorbike and then got into a fight or was robbed, Lt Col Weerayut said.

The woman lived in nearby Bang Jo and went to the Tha Reua Market via Srisoonthorn Road everyday, Lt Col Weerayut said.

“This stretch of road is quite curvy and there are always accidents and robberies here, so we plan to put a police box in the area,” he said.

— Atchaa Khamlo