Phuket Acid Attack Meters From Cop Shop

[webfact]

Phuket acid attack meters from cop shop

PATONG, PHUKET: A man threw acid in the face of a 27-year-old woman just 100 meters from Kathu Police Station in the early hours of this morning.

The victim, Sirirat Nankham, is being treated at Vachira Phuket Hospital. Her left eye is swollen shut and she has blisters all over her body.

Ms Sirirat, who works as a cashier at a beer bar underneath the Tiger Pub and Discotheque on Soi Bangla, told police she was attacked at around 12.45am this morning.

She was riding her motorcycle down Ratchapratan-nusorn Road when two men pulled up beside her outside the Patong Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation office.

The man riding pillion threw the acid at her face, causing her to fall off her motorcycle.

The attackers fled immediately.

A passer-by brought Ms Sirirat to Patong Hospital, where she was able to give a statement to police before being transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket City, where she remains.

Police believe the attack may be a case of mistaken identity.

Ms Sirirat told them she did not recognize the men and had not had any disputes with anyone recently.

Neither had she had an affair with any married men, she said.

Police suspect the attack may have been meant for her younger sister, who borrowed Ms Sirirat's motorbike the day before the attack.

The two men may have been hired to attack the younger girl, mistakenly attacking Ms Sirirat instead because she was riding the same bike, police believe.

Police are examining CCTV footage from a camera at the Patong Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation office in an effort to gather enough evidence to get a court warrant to arrest the two men.

Acid attacks are not unprecedented in Phuket and are usually motivated by jealousy.

In June 2007 a mother and daughter were charged with throwing acid in the face of a 23-year-old woman because they believed she was having an affair with the mother's husband.

In November 2006 a woman threw acid at her husband and his new girlfriend after the man asked for a divorce.

-- Phuket Gazette 2009/11/20

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]