Watching the Thai Tv News about a female University student who was innocently waiting at a bus stop and was struck in the head by a stray bullet which was fired at a brawl between Technical College (male) stuedents and University (male) students.

The girl is currently in ICU and the prognosis is not good due to the complexity of removing the bullet from her brain.

There have been various incidents, last year another female University student was shot dead from a misdirected bullet in a similar incident, she died in her boyfriends arms on the street and 6 months ago a male University student was shot point blank in the head by a Zip gun while sitting on a bus.

It even verges on the ridiculous when it was reported that students where using their T-Squares as swords and battling it out like in Gladiator.

Whats this all about?

Im hoping to get some insight from the teachers and other who know in the forum why there is such hatred between the two sets of students.

Is it a class thing, school pride, jealousy, hatred, turf war or just another mindless act of stupidy?

It's mostly war between rival gangs of technical school students. I don't think university students are usually targeted. Shootings on buses and at bus stops are not uncommon. If you're wearing the wrong uniform you become fair game.

I was walking out of Central Bangna one evening when people started diving for cover and there was a sound like a car backfiring. I suddenly realized there was a young man on the back of a motorcycle firing a gun into other students at the bus stop. The attackers took off and the others hopped onto their motorcycles and went after them. I've also seen quite a lot of violence in Samrong and Paknam.

Thre reasons are probably all of the things you've mentioned above plus the eye-for-an-eye mentality that feeds upon itself each time another attack happens. But look at the age and background of the guys involved and it's really not much different to gang warfare anywhere else.

I was walking out of Central Bangna one evening when people started diving for cover and there was a sound like a car backfiring. I suddenly realized there was a young man on the back of a motorcycle firing a gun into other students at the bus stop. The attackers took off and the others hopped onto their motorcycles and went after them. I've also seen quite a lot of violence in Samrong and Paknam.

I've seen similar things on a bus going to Central bangna, people diving for cover, including me.

Paknam and Samrong are very dangerous, also Bang Plee too.

A couple of years ago I was in a traffic jam in a taxi going past the World Trade Centre (Central World Plaza) in bkk. The taxi was in about the middle lane (of 6?) when there was a bang from the right side. A group of youths - students, I guess - were ripping up the pavement and throwing the bits at a bus full of other students and smashing the windows. Some had poles and were hitting the bus and chasing the other students. The taxi driver just turned round in his seat and locked the rear doors. The youths all ran off towards Ploenchit Road.

Didn't see one policeman.