Police, who withheld the American’s name, said the man walked in at about 8pm claiming that someone was following him. They asked for his passport and discovered that he had overstayed his permit to stay by a year.
They put him in the police station cells to await transfer to Immigration for processing.
While they were not looking, however, the American stabbed himself three times in the throat with something short but sharp. Bleeding heavily, he was taken for treatment to Vachira Phuket Hopsital, where he remains under police guard.
Police have been unable to find the weapon the American used to stick himself with, but believe it may have been a sliver of porcelain from the sink or toilet in the cell.