A troubling event unfolded in Phuket when a man opened fire on a Russian restaurateur as he sat inside a car. The incident has prompted a swift police response and a search for the suspect, who fled the scene in a hurry.
Initial reports describe the 44-year-old Russian as being parked in front of a shop in the Cherng Talay district when a helmeted figure on a Honda PCX motorcycle pulled up. The attacker discharged several rounds at the windshield, leaving four bullet holes behind as officers later inspected the vehicle area.
The wounded man was transported to Thalang hospital where he remains in a coma. Authorities are treating the case as an attempted murder and are pursuing all leads to identify the assailant and determine the motive for this violent act.
According to first-hand accounts, the suspect, who is also described as a foreign national, waited for the victim to arrive, brandished a firearm, and struck the car before vanishing. Evidence left behind includes the attacker’s jacket, shoes, glasses, gloves, and the firearm, recovered on the riverbank about a kilometer from the crime scene.
In related developments, earlier local reports noted a separate aggressive confrontation in which a Russian woman allegedly stabbed a man in a separate queue with a knife, underscoring a tense atmosphere in the area and prompting heightened police vigilance.