Angry crowd riots on Phuket after 2 killed in police crash

Amnuay said protesters blocked the road from 8 p.m. Saturday to 4 a.m. Sunday, inconveniencing tourists who were trying to reach the airport.

Details are not yet clear but about 5pm it was reported in one online social network that a crowd of about 100 had gathered outside the Thalang Police Station in Thepkasattri Road, Phuket’s main north south thoroughfare. Around 700 army and police reinforcements were called in to deal with the mob that surrounded the station.

Protesters set fire to vehicles on the police station grounds and threw Molotov cocktails and firecrackers into the station, witnesses said. It was a riot. “It was loud and chaotic”.

“Police today promised a swift investigation into the deaths of two young men allegedly killed during a police pursuit yesterday after an angry mob besieged a police station for 15 hours last night to demand justice for their deaths”.

Mr Amnuay said police suspected the men of drug possession after they sped past a police checkpoint and refused to stop, prompting officers to chase them.

According to eyewitnesses, someone from the crowd yelled out that officers were attacking residents at the traffic junction, but as a crowd mobilized to the junction, they only found police officers attempting to flee. The two men were seriously injured in the collision and pronounced dead on being admitted to Thalang Hospital.

However, relatives of the dead men and the angry crowd accuse the police of overreacting.

As the protest began to gain momentum yesterday afternoon, both the Phuket governor and police chief were dispatched to the scene in hopes of quelling the escalating situation.