Wow, another Phuket thriller
With high season approaching, In Ao Nang. I fear that another tourist death is imminent. Gangs of teenage kids, armed with knifes and machetes roam the roads like something out of a Hollywood horror movie
I Feared Gang Was Intent on Rape, Says Badly Stabbed, Slashed British Tourist
By Alan Morison
Thursday, October 25, 2012
PHUKET: A British tourist told tonight how he fought off a knife and machete gang in Krabi because he thought they wanted to rape his girlfriend - and praised another British man who saved his life.
Jack Daniel Cole, 21, displayed his multiple stab wounds to Phuketwan as he recovered in a hospital on Phuket and said: ''I've been to hell and back.''
Mr Cole and his girlfriend, April Clifton, also 21, were attacked by the gang in Ao Nang, a popular Krabi tourist destination, about 11pm on Monday night.
''We had spent three nights in Bangkok and planned to spend 10 nights in Krabi,'' Mr Cole said from his bed at the Bangkok Hospital Phuket in Phuket City.
He has half-a-dozen knife wounds and a savage slash to the side of his face - probably inflicted by a machete - that required more than 30 stitches.
The worst of the knife wounds plunged eight centimetres into his shoulder, cutting tendons and piercing muscle. It will be six weeks, doctors say, before he can remove a sling and months before he can return to the gym.
But he and April are alive.
''All I can do is guess what they wanted,'' Mr Cole said tonight. ''But they did not want my wallet.
''When three of them chased after April, I chased after them. I managed to fight off the ones who surrounded me.
''I didn't know that I'd already been stabbed five or six times. They told me later that the blow to my head was probably from a machete.''
Another Brit who manages a dive shop and happened to be at a bar nearby staunched the massive bleeding, helped Mr Cole to Krabi Hospital, and ''saved my life, basically.''
The gang of five youths and two girls had gone past Mr Cole and Ms Clifton on their motorcycles - mopeds Mr Cole calls them - then doubled back and passed again, a little slower.
''We really weren't expecting it,'' Mr Cole said tonight. ''The first I knew was when a lump of concrete hit me in the back.
''Then I fought as hard as I could. When I saw that three of the males were chasing off after April, I took off after them. I was desperate to protect her.''
The slash and stab wounds down his right side show how desperate someone was to stop him.
If things had turned out differently, peaceful tourist destination Krabi could have had a murder to deal with.
As it turned out, Krabi police are still hunting members of the gang. They may have already arrested three of them.
Ms Clifton and her father, Clive, were travelling from Phuket to Krabi today to obtain the police incident statement that the couple will need to activate their travel insurance.
April's father was on a flight from Britain to Phuket as soon as he heard what had happened. And it was a wise thing.
''April is still feeling the effects of the attack,'' Mr Cole said. ''She found herself in trouble just walking down a street. So it's a good thing her father came to help.''
He says the reaction from resort staff, from the tour agents, from British honorary consul for Phuket, Martin Carpenter, from Tourist Police and others has been ''just wonderful.''
More lighting has even been installed along the walk the couple took after dinner in Ao Nang, back to catch the boat at the pier for their five-star resort.
Two Phuket City policemen dropped by as we talked tonight, making a courtesy call and anxious to not have the tourists' view of Krabi and Phuket entirely painted as full of gangs and bad people.
However, Mr Cole's wounds are alarming. Had he not fought off the attackers, it's difficult to know what might have happened.
It's not the first savage attack inflicted on tourists in Krabi this year. Other visitors have been raped.
Another, a young German tourist, had her thumb cut off in a brazen attack in Krabi Town. Apparently attacks are not as rare as tourists are led to believe.
Here's how the man who probably saved Mr Cole's life reported it on a chat room:
With high season approaching, In Ao Nang. I fear that another tourist death is imminent. Gangs of teenage kids, armed with knifes and machetes roam the roads like something out of a Hollywood horror movie. Where are the police ? Where are the lights, I know this is a long term problem in Ao Nang as it's been my home for six years. I would like to inform you, about my encounter last night. Around 10.50 pm, While sitting in a quiet bar in the Nopparattara national park, next to the pier. A man and his girlfriend approached me asking me to help them. At first I just thought they wanted directions or something, when I saw them in the light. Then I realised they needed life saving help, with the man's head pumping blood like a fountain... I shouted to a friend to call the rescue service, the wound to the head was around 4 inches in length and skull exposed. On further inspection to his body, I found deep stab wounds . . . After we had stopped most of the blood flow the rescue guys came,Thank God.In all my life, I have never witnessed any like this, and I've been around somewhat....While we were trying to stop the blood and reassuring the man I had chance to talk to his girlfriend, about what had led to the attack. They were walking from Ao Nang beach, to the Nopparattara Pier to catch a speedboat back to their resort. At 11.30pm. After a nice meal they thought better to walk, as they had plenty of time. Just 1 minute before the pier, they were approached by 4 boys and 3 girls . . . No exchange of words, then the boys started to lob bricks and stones, hitting them many times, suddenly the boys ran towards them, pushing the girl to the ground. On this, the man tried to help his girlfriend up. While he was down they repeatedly struck him with a machete and stabbed him. WTF is wrong with this place!!! I accompanied the girl to the Krabi Hospital where I witnessed the same old story. You pay or no treatment. The resort where they were staying kindly brought his and hers passports, money and the life saving Insurance doc. I've been in contact since and they are both doing fine. With the uk embassy helping them as well. After reading their facebook page and seeing how excited they were. Only 3 days to go 2 days to go then tomorrow off to paradise...Well some Paradise its turned out to be!!!!....I hope the cctv will help catch these little cowardly thugs . . . A very upset/shocked and pissed off Mr Huw.
Nasty incident, I am not sure what exactly went down. It isn't unheard of for yabaa'd youths to randomly attack folks, but it is very rare. This could be one such attack or it could have been provoked by the tourists, who knows? I do think attacks such as this are increasing, and tourists are getting into more and more trouble. The trouble is, as the Thai tourist market continues its inexorable rise through the ranks of tourist 'quality', we are seeing less and less tourists who are savvy or actually do any research. Thailand IS a dangerous place, however, all we see is more and more 2 week package tourists who believe the marketing hype - and don't read the warnings on the tin.
I ain't suggesting that this incident was the fault of the tourists, we just don't know (and probably never will thank to plod), but all I do know is that Thailand ain't the paradise that is marketed in many corridors of tourist power.
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A real time followup:
Krabi teens claim stabbing of British tourist was a ‘misunderstanding’
Phuket Gazette – Friday, October 26, 2012 12:24:39 PM
PHUKET: Two teenagers who confessed to attacking a British tourist in Krabi on Monday have claimed that they “misunderstood” the foreigner’s actions and thought he was insulting them.
The victim, Daniel Cole, 21, has already undergone surgery for the cut wounds to his temple, chest, right shoulder and right arm and is recovering at Bangkok Hospital Phuket.
Anusorn Kullak, 18, and his accomplice, 17, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are being held at Krabi Prison.
“They said Mr Cole had insulted them, so the 17-year-old stabbed him with a 15-inch Sparta knife, while Mr Anusorn used a shoe to beat him,”Ao Nang officer Lt Col Niwat Pimket told the Phuket Gazette.
The men ran off after the attack, and then people at a nearby dive shop called the police and rescue workers, he explained.
The British woman, April Clifton, 21, who was walking with Mr Cole was not attacked. The pair were arrested about four hours after the incident.
Today, Mr Cole explained to police that he was still shocked by the attack. However, he would like to return to his travels in Krabi as soon as the hospital discharges him.
This message has been brought to you by the tourim industry, and by the letters W, T and F.However, he would like to return to his travels in Krabi as soon as the hospital discharges him.
I sleep in the daytime, I
Work in the night time, I
Might not ever get home
“They said Mr Cole had insulted them, so the 17-year-old stabbed him " That's what i should do every time someone pisses me off.
Really? Just what the fuck do you think a "savvy" traveler would have done in their place? C'mon man, give the kids a break, this was random violence.Originally Posted by goo_stewart
"While Jim is milking the Russian Boar, I'm in the shade of a Baobab tree being served a cool drink by a beautiful young indigenous girl. "
Marlin Perkins
Aloha - Aloha HARD
^I made it clear that I wasn't talking about this chap - I did say that I had no idea what had occurred, random or not, so I was making a general comment about tourism in Thailand. To that end, I stick by what I said, purely because we are seeing a rise in incidents of tourists getting into trouble when they could have read something and saved themselves some trouble.
Even in this case, it would seem that there was some intercultural communication issues, I ain't saying that the tourists are guilty of anything, but I do reckon that a few issues we see could be down to tourists just not doing any research on Thailand, just believing the marketing hype. Thailand is a dangerous place, even for the clued up, many, many package (and increasingly flashpacker) tourists come here without a clue, living the dream and then are shocked when they get into trouble - this ain't Kansas.
WTF??
^yet again, have you read what I wrote, I wasn't talking about the unfortunate chap in the article, I did make that very clear. I still stand by what I wrote - a great deal of tourists get into trouble because they do not read any of the warnings. The trouble could be as innocuous as a scam in a tuk tuk, or, increasingly it could mean getting into trouble with locals through some inappropriate gesture or comment (intended or unintended).
Guy, are you gonna stop your stalking me any time, or shall we just get a room?
Seems like this pair were jumped. You suggest that many tourists do not 'read warnings' and deserve to be mugged/killed. Since you are the expert on warnings, what should they have done differently once they were targeted by this gang, other than getting themselves killed?
Sad story.
Sent through Tapatalk.
I don't 'suggest', I am actually saying ithat is the case.
No, of course they don't, what a nasty thing to believe. That is so ludicrous that it can only come from a bitter and twisted mind. Who would ever suggest that someone 'deserves' to get mugged?
Nothing, once they were in the cross-hairs, of this particular gang, there was pretty much nothing they could do.
Guy, yet again, you seem to have read something into what I am saying and then either deliberately, or through ignorance, are misrepresenting me and what I have written. Why do you keep doing that? The original comments were general comments about tourist demographics in Thailand, I made it quite clear that I wasn't commenting on this specific case because I didn't know what had happened.
You read the news item, didn't you? Then you commented that, generally speaking, tourists who get in trouble deserve the trouble because they don't 'read warnings.'
You obviously see this mugging as a cautionary tale. What's a 'savvy tourist?'
the elephant in the room to me is that tourists, from backpacker to the higher end, are a loathsome, arrogant, obnoxious, impolite, disrespectful, over-priveliged bunch who rub their wealth and freedom in the face of the locals, and this i thought and still think, will have it's inevitable backlash.
it's not the dood's fault, more than likely they are completely innocent, but the general falang attitude and behaviour is as much a contributor to this situation as any local social issues, drugs and poverty and wotnot.
any time i've been to ksr, the majority of people i see are ego inflated douchebags who are bent on displaying every ugly thing about themselves and their station in life. same same in the tonier joints of the nice malls and flash restaurants and bars downtown. i'm surprised there isn't more violence against tourists.
Nice name. Jack Daniel.
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