Police arrested a Thai man after he allegedly slashed a Vietnamese woman with a box cutter in Bangkok’s Silom area yesterday, June 27, later claiming he targeted her because of her body size.
The case came to wider public attention today, June 28, after the Facebook page Big Krian shared photos and videos of the arrest.
The attack happened at about 11.30am on the pavement outside a convenience store at the entrance to Soi Silom 5. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram, a 29 year old Vietnamese national working in Thailand, was walking along the pavement when the accused allegedly slashed her arm with a 9-inch box cutter before fleeing across the road.
The injured woman ran into the convenience store, where staff administered first aid before the store manager called police and arranged for her to be taken to a hospital. Naewna reported that she received 14 stitches.
Responding officers tracked the accused to a nearby road off Silom, where they requested additional support because he was described as physically large and allegedly still armed. He was subsequently arrested, and police recovered the box cutter believed to have been used in the attack.
Police identified the accused as 30 year old Esana from Lop Buri province. He was charged with causing bodily harm to another person resulting in physical injury, while the victim identified him after returning from hospital.
During initial questioning, Esana allegedly admitted carrying out the attack. According to police, he said he disliked overweight women because he weighed 120 kilogrammes, claiming he did not want anyone else to be overweight and wanted to be “the only one.”
He also allegedly told investigators that seeing an overweight woman walk past made him angry and led him to attack her.
Residents in the Silom area told police that the man regularly wandered around the neighbourhood and described him as a vulnerable individual whose behaviour posed a risk to others.
They also alleged he had previously chased and assaulted overweight women in the area before the attack on the Vietnamese victim.
Elsewhere, three Vietnamese nationals was left seriously wounded and a fourth fled after a public knife fight in Pattaya. Witnesses say the four men argued before attacking each other with knives, in full view of tourists and locals walking by.
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