Terror at Railay Beach in Krabi - foreign tourists taken hostage as shots fired

[Catoni]

2 hours ago, Falcon said:

Are you serious? A .357 magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and your saying it’s not a big gun??? Try facing someone head on when this ‘small gun’ is being brandished about, especially by someone high on drugs and see just how small it is!!

Your comment about a .357 magnum revolver being “...the most powerful handgun in the world...” makes it clear that you know nothing about firearms. How embarrassing for you!

[1duckyboy]

2 hours ago, Kieran00001 said:

 

15 per 100 people, of legally owned guns.  Quite high, but only the 37th highest worldwide, 16 countries in Europe have a higher rate of gun ownership, with Germany, Austria, France, Norway and Cyprus all having twice the rate of Thailand, and then the US with a rate over 5 times as high and having more guns than they have people.

These figures include long gun ownership. I suspect figures for per capita pistol ownership would place Thailand higher and European countries lower. 

Edited July 11, 2018 by 1duckyboy

[smotherb]

1 hour ago, stbkk said:

You mean Dirty Harry wasn't telling the truth? I'm devastated...!

Yeah, imagine that a catch-phrase in a movie not being the gospel. Actually the .454 Casull was the most powerful handgun cartridge in the world when Clint made that statement. However, it did not have the commercial availability the .44 magnum had. So, Clint may not have really lied.  

[r136dg]

1 hour ago, dluek said:

Spent a week on Railay last month. Beautiful but there is something strange about it. Dark inland footpaths, weed smoke everywhere (not just in Tonsai like it used to be), no visible police presence at all. I encountered lots of nice people who live there, but also some weirdos. 

Weirdos? In Thailand? No way! lol

[malcoml]

"sir can you please pay check bin before leaving restaurant"

 

In other news foreign hostage is being hunted by police for not paying the restaurant bill.

[dictater]

2 hours ago, transam said:

Any country has folk with weapons under the bed......

But in Thailand they are not under the bed, they are in the hands of morons and lunatics who use them pretty damn freely. Reminds me of being back in the good ole US of A.

[tweedledee2]

1 hour ago, stbkk said:

You mean Dirty Harry wasn't telling the truth? I'm devastated...!

Clint Eastwood's character "Dirty Harry" carried a S&W Model 29 44 mag. and at one time the .44 mag "was" the most powerful handgun cartridge, but not know. 

[55Jay]

1 minute ago, dictater said:

But in Thailand they are not under the bed, they are in the hands of morons and lunatics who use them pretty damn freely. Reminds me of being back in the good ole US of A.

Have you ever been robbed at gunpoint or otherwise threatened directly with a firearm in the US?  Edit: Or here in Thailand?

Edited July 11, 2018 by 55Jay

[transam]

Just now, tweedledee2 said:

Clint Eastwood's character "Dirty Harry" carried a S&W Model 29 44 mag. and at one time the .44 mag "was" the most powerful handgun cartridge, but not know. 

At the time of the film, off the shelf,  it was....

[wazzupnow]

2 hours ago, Kieran00001 said:

 

15 per 100 people, of legally owned guns.  Quite high, but only the 37th highest worldwide, 16 countries in Europe have a higher rate of gun ownership, with Germany, Austria, France, Norway and Cyprus all having twice the rate of Thailand, and then the US with a rate over 5 times as high and having more guns than they have people.

 U S of A is that not the country people do not dare go to 7 eleven after dark, afraid of getting shot?

[tandor]

2 hours ago, transam said:

Any country has folk with weapons under the bed......

..Australia had a 'gun buy-back' initiative after the Port Arthur Massacre in 1996..

26,000 were handed in in the 1st amnesty..in the 2nd amnesty 30,000..authorities reckon there are at least 10x that still out there.

[55Jay]

Just now, wazzupnow said:

 U S of A is that not the country people do not dare go to 7 eleven after dark, afraid of getting shot?

I never was.  In Thailand, I had a higher, far more realistic chance of being ripped to shreds by soi dogs if I tried to ride my bike up to the Tesco Express anytime after 8pm.   

[sambum]

4 hours ago, hansnl said:

It's not a big weapon, also.

It's just a revolver, suitable to fire .357 and .38, which is around 9 mm.

.38 about the same power as a 9mm, .357 more powerful.

But only 6 cartridges in the weapon.

 

 

"But only 6 cartridges in the weapon"

 

Oh, that's all right, then - next time I'm confronted by someone with a gun, and he has already fired it six times I'm going to be OK  Thank you - I feel much safer now!.

Edited July 11, 2018 by sambum

[ttrd]

RE - They contacted his father over the phone from his hometown. The father convinced his son to give up his weapon.

 

So the real hero here is AIS or their alike who made this possible….

[tweedledee2]

1 hour ago, Just Weird said:

All the firearms "experts" are out in force derailing this thread, posting their irrelevant "information" after a quick google.

It's not any different than someone asking about how to set up a Bangkok Bank NY transfer account and out come the TransferWise brigade or how about someone asking advice on Windows 10 and getting told to get a Mac or use Linux.  Those people are the hijackers. Also, I didn't need Google for my other post.

[RT555]

4 hours ago, hansnl said:

It's not a big weapon, also.

It's just a revolver, suitable to fire .357 and .38, which is around 9 mm.

.38 about the same power as a 9mm, .357 more powerful.

But only 6 cartridges in the weapon.

 

 

A 357 cartridge would penetrate 12 cans of SPAM, while a 38 cartridge would maybe go through 5 or 6 cans of SPAM. 

 

[PEE TEE]

I wonder what will happen to him now ??? high on drugs pee pee test . jail sentence i would hope . Or as he is thai just a slap on the wrist ?? 

[wealthychef]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Finally he gave up his .357 gun.

Dirty Harry would be proud!  

 

[Media1]

4 hours ago, flyingtlger said:

 

That's not a small weapon.  Thank God nobody was hurt and the hostage negotiators had the wit to call the gunmans' father....

 

 

It's the coota of all old timers. Not a easy piece to obtain 

[transam]

8 minutes ago, sambum said:

"But only 6 cartridges in the weapon"

 

Oh, that's all right, then - next time I'm confronted by someone with a gun, and he has already fired it six times I'm going to be OK  Thank you - I feel much safer now!.

Not really, there are revolvers with 7 rounds...Be careful out there....?

[sambum]

1 minute ago, transam said:

Not really, there are revolvers with 7 rounds...Be careful out there....?

Ah - problem solved:-  " next time I'm confronted by someone with a .357 gun,"

[Kerryd]

1 hour ago, Easy Come Easy Go said:

I was talking with my gf earlier today, and she mentioned to me how the tourism industry is down this year in quite a big way (she works in travel and tourism) and also here in Hua Hin, the latest 'high season' has been very poor indeed. Many restaurants and places around town are seeing a lot less business, that's for sure

That's odd because every statistic I can access shows the number of tourist arrivals is much higher this year than last year.
From one site: " Tourist arrivals in Thailand surged 16.27 percent in March from a year earlier, led by visitors from China, the tourism ministry said on Wednesday." (Referring to 2018 vs 2017 arrivals.)

 

From another site: "Thailand started the first four months of 2018 with international arrivals climbing 13.9% year-on-year to 13.7 million, led by growth from India and China."
(Which would indicate fewer arrivals in May.)

From another site, it is estimated that there were 35,381,210 arrivals in 2017, which is the highest number of arrivals ever (so far). That equals about 2,948,434 arrivals per month.
By May of 2018 it was estimated that Thailand had already received 16,456,470 arrivals, which averages to about 3,291,294 per month which equals about a 11.5% increase over last year.

Interesting note - the year of the last coup (2014) tourist arrivals dropped by about 1.5 million to about 24,809,000. However, they have steadily climbed every year since then (despite what some people would have you believe). In fact, the year after the coup (2015) arrivals had jumped to 29,881,000 and in 2016 they went up to 32,588,000 and as I already mentioned 2017 set another record for arrival numbers.

All the naysayers kept talking about how every little incident that happens will be "the death of tourism", the "final nail in the coffin", an "already fragile" system.

Funny how the actual facts show otherwise.

Here's what they simply. don't. get.

Incidents that happen in Thailand rarely make the "international" news unless it is something very dramatic (like a tsunami, soccer team trapped in a cave, a couple of Buddhist monks beheaded, etc, etc).

I read a lot of news everyday. When I am out of Thailand there is very little coverage of anything that happens there. The Seven Deadly Days of Songkran ? Not a whisper about it internationally (but of course it got a lot of coverage locally).

Tourist boat capsizes and 36 Chinese tourists dead ? A single article on most international sites and then it quietly slips away. 
Some stories get more play in their home countries, like the dead Chinese tourist story probably got a lot more coverage in China than it did anywhere else. Same like the Koh Tao murders. If you compared the number of stories about that in the UK press to the press in the US, Canada, Germany, Sweden, India (etc, etc) there'd really be no comparison. 

A  drug addict with a gun taking hostages in Krabi ? Might not make the international news at all. Might (possibly) make a media site in another country if one of the tourists decides to try and "sell their story".

But the vast majority of the world, and all the tourists in it, will likely not see the story nor will it be likely to affect their travel plans in any way. Frik, I worked with a woman in Afghanistan that was going to fly to Bangkok to meet her 2 sons and then go to Phuket for a vacation back in December 2004. 
The day she was supposed to fly out of Kabul is the day the Tsunami hit Phuket. Because of weather, she was grounded in Kabul for a couple days longer than expected and when she was able to finally fly, she still went to Thailand, met her sons and went somewhere else (can't remember if they went to Chiang Mai or Pattaya - I did tease her everyday about how when she finally arrived her 2 sons, aged 18 and 20, would probably meet her at the airport, along with their new Thai wives ! A tsunami wiped out the place she had been planning on going and it did't really change her plans a bit, just the final destination changed.)

So no, this event will not be "the final nail in the coffin or "the straw that breaks the tourism back" (yadda yadda yadda).

BTW - as for Thaksin. If you recall, there was a lot of talk that Thaksin's "war on drugs" was more about eliminating the competition than it was about getting rid of the drug problem in Thailand. It is/was rumoured that was why there were so many "extrajudicial killings" of "suspected drug traffickers" (don't want them revealing any secrets in court or anything).
Also keep in mind that Thaksin was a former police lieutenant colonel and note that the drug trade has never really been affected. Just look at all the articles about the massive amounts of drugs they seem to catch people with on almost a daily basis. All the "war on drugs" did was get rid of some of the dumber ones, the "easy to identify" targets and any that had gotten "too big for their britches".

Drugs and poverty continue to be a huge issue for Thailand.

 

But that apparently won't have any effect on tourism either, just like this incident won't.

 

Edited July 11, 2018 by Kerryd

[shy coconut]

4 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

Yet another crazy incident to dent the already fragile reputation of the Thai tourism industry. At least it was all resolved with no injuries or worse... 

I think only Thai visa scardy cats and bashers think that an incident like this would concern

any potential visitors, even the Chinese will keep coming despite the awful boat tragedy

down south.

[scorecard]

3 hours ago, grumbleweed said:

Can't wait for the TAT spin on this one

Agree,

 

- First quick comment for the TAT will be 'it won't have any effect on tourism.

- Second, 'there have been no cancellations, so the world still loves Thailand.'

 

[gerritkaew]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

The weapon was found to be legally owned

Who can own one,, a police man and.....?

[sambum]

10 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

That's odd because every statistic I can access shows the number of tourist arrivals is much higher this year than last year.
From one site: " Tourist arrivals in Thailand surged 16.27 percent in March from a year earlier, led by visitors from China, the tourism ministry said on Wednesday." (Referring to 2018 vs 2017 arrivals.)

 

From another site: "Thailand started the first four months of 2018 with international arrivals climbing 13.9% year-on-year to 13.7 million, led by growth from India and China."
(Which would indicate a large jump in arrivals in May.)

From another site, it is estimated that there were 35,381,210 arrivals in 2017, which is the highest number of arrivals ever (so far). That equals about 2,948,434 arrivals per month.
By May of 2018 it was estimated that Thailand had already received 16,456,470 arrivals, which averages to about 3,291,294 per month which equals about a 11.5% increase over last year.

Interesting note - the year of the last coup (2014) tourist arrivals dropped by about 1.5 million to about 24,809,000. However, they have steadily climbed every year since then (despite what some people would have you believe). In fact, the year after the coup (2015) arrivals had jumped to 29,881,000 and in 2016 they went up to 32,588,000 and as I already mentioned 2017 set another record for arrival numbers.

All the naysayers kept talking about how every little incident that happens will be "the death of tourism", the "final nail in the coffin", an "already fragile" system.

Funny how the actual facts show otherwise.

Here's what they simply. don't. get.

Incidents that happen in Thailand rarely make the "international" news unless it is something very dramatic (like a tsunami, soccer team trapped in a cave, a couple of Buddhist monks beheaded, etc, etc).

I read a lot of news everyday. When I am out of Thailand there is very little coverage of anything that happens there. The Seven Deadly Days of Songkran ? Not a whisper about it internationally (but of course it got a lot of coverage locally).

Tourist boat capsizes and 36 Chinese tourists dead ? A single article on most international sites and then it quietly slips away. 
Some stories get more play in their home countries, like the dead Chinese tourist story probably got a lot more coverage in China than it did anywhere else. Same like the Koh Tao murders. If you compared the number of stories about that in the UK press to the press in the US, Canada, Germany, Sweden, India (etc, etc) there'd really be no comparison. 

A  drug addict with a gun taking hostages in Krabi ? Might not make the international news at all. Might (possibly) make a media site in another country if one of the tourists decides to try and "sell their story".

But the vast majority of the world, and all the tourists in it, will likely not see the story nor will it be likely to affect their travel plans in any way. Frik, I worked with a woman in Afghanistan that was going to fly to Bangkok to meet her 2 sons and then go to Phuket for a vacation back in December 2004. 
The day she was supposed to fly out of Kabul is the day the Tsunami hit Phuket. Because of weather, she was grounded in Kabul for a couple days longer than expected and when she was able to finally fly, she still went to Thailand, met her sons and went somewhere else (can't remember if they went to Chiang Mai or Pattaya - I did tease her everyday about how when she finally arrived her 2 sons, aged 18 and 20, would probably meet her at the airport, along with their new Thai wives ! A tsunami wiped out the place she had been planning on going and it did't really change her plans a bit, just the final destination changed.)

So no, this event will not be "the final nail in the coffin or "the straw that breaks the tourism back" (yadda yadda yadda).

BTW - as for Thaksin. If you recall, there was a lot of talk that Thaksin's "war on drugs" was more about eliminating the competition than it was about getting rid of the drug problem in Thailand. It is/was rumoured that was why there were so many "extrajudicial killings" of "suspected drug traffickers" (don't want them revealing any secrets in court or anything).
Also keep in mind that Thaksin was a former police lieutenant colonel and note that the drug trade has never really been affected. Just look at all the articles about the massive amounts of drugs they seem to catch people with on almost a daily basis. All the "war on drugs" did was get rid of some of the dumber ones, the "easy to identify" targets and any that had gotten "too big for their britches".

Drugs and poverty continue to be a huge issue for Thailand.

 

But that apparently won't have any effect on tourism either, just like this incident won't.

 

Regarding the tourist figures, I must admit I am inclined to agree with Easy Come Easy Go. I have lived in Thailand for more than 10 years, and have seen a steady decline in tourist numbers - at least where I live.

And I have yet to see a TAT announcement at any time to say that tourist figures are down - you don't perchance work for them, do you?

Edited July 11, 2018 by sambum

[helloagain]

4 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

Yet another crazy incident to dent the already fragile reputation of the Thai tourism industry. At least it was all resolved with no injuries or worse... 

I would be happy if police shot and killed gunman then case closed

[DJ54]

Did he fire six shots or only five'? Well to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, i kind of lost track myself. But being that this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well do ya, punk?

[sambum]

3 minutes ago, helloagain said:

I would be happy if police shot and killed gunman then case closed

Oh, but but he was on drugs and obviously needs help! 

[KiChakayan]

Sorry if some one else asked this question; but why didn't they just shoot him when he refused to surrender?