Despite news reports claiming that the “boy” attacked was 10 years old, Patong Police today (May 17) confirmed the victim was 20-year-old Abdulloh Saesaheh.
Mr Abdulloh suffered blows to his left temple and an injury to his elbow, said Maj Gornpon Liangboonjinda of Patong Police.
“We are investigating the attack and trying to gain more information in order to find the man and the group of people from the CCTV,” said Maj Gornpon.
Maj Gornpon did not elaborate on when police began their investigations, or confirm whether a formal complaint had been filed with the Patong Police.
However, a video of the attack posted on Facebook by Mr Abdulloh’s father under then name “ Tohee Seesa” has since gone viral online, with more than 455,000 views over the past two weeks. The news has now made international headlines.
In posting the video, “Tohee Seesa” offered a B5,000 reward to find the man who struck his son. (See video here.)
The minute and-a-half video shows the 20-year-old sitting on a chair and using his phone before he is approached by a foreign man in a blue shirt accompanied by two foreign women.
The three foreigners are soon joined by another foreign man, who sits down to the side.
The foreigner in blue shirt appears to question the two women with him, and then appears to yell angrily at Mr Abdulloh, who begins to retrieve his mobile phone from his pocket.
The foreigner strikes the young man three times, and when Mr Abdulloh tries to stand, the older man pushes him to the ground again.
“Mr Abdulloh was listening to this man yell at him in English, but he could not understand any of it, so he tried to call his English-speaking friend to clarify what this guy wanted. That’s when the foreigner got angry and attacked Mr Abdulloh,” reported Maj Gornpon.
“According to Mr Abdulloh, the two women in the video had already come to the toilets previously, but refused to pay the 10-baht fee. They went away to get their boyfriends, or male companions, and returned with them to confront him,” Maj Gornpon added.
Maj Gornpon did not offer any explanation of why a foreigner would react so violently to paying such a pithy fee to use a toilet.
Mr Abdulloh’s father urged any anyone who had information that may help locate his son’s attacker to call 081-0826456 or 085-8885572. Alternatively, people may inform the Patong Police directly.