Cherng Talay Police have identified the three men as Rory Billy Colhoun, 34; Emilio Armani Bozzo, 35; and Rayon Stanley Joseph Hamilton Craig.
All three men are from Leeds, and all three men left Phuket on a flight to Denpasar, Indonesia, on Sunday evening, Cherng Talay Police have reported.
Officers were called to the scene at 4:20am following reports of a fight involving foreign nationals, said an official report by Cherng Talay Police.
Upon arrival, police found 23-year-old French citizen Jugurtha Nubel Khaleche with three knife wounds to his left side and back. He was taken to Thalang Hospital and is now in stable condition.
According to the investigation, the altercation began inside a “nearby restaurant” and spilled outside, where Mr Khaleche was assaulted by the three men, Cherng Talay Police said.
One of the attackers reportedly used a knife during the incident before the group fled the scene in a grey Mazda 2 sedan with no visible license plates.
Pol Lt Col Khajornkiat Khamwichairat, who is responsible for the case, today (May 14) confirmed that the initial fight happened in a venue different from the venue initially reported by police.
Asked whether the unnamed venue was allowed to be open and trading at that hour, Pol Lt Col Khajornkiat ‒ avoiding naming the “restaurant” ‒ would only say that the venue operator had been “warned”.
Regarding the investigation into tracking down the three Brits, the official report by the Cherng Talay Police marked that investigators had reviewed CCTV footage from the area and obtained a video clip recorded by a bystander, both of which captured the suspects’ appearances.
During their escape, one of the suspects dropped a black iPhone at the scene. Police traced the device to a SIM card registered under the name of Emilio Bozzo.
Police are now working to gather sufficient evidence to obtain arrest warrants for all three suspects, said the official report.
The case is being handled in coordination with the Phuket Provincial Police Crime Suppression Division, the report also noted.
Pol Lt Col Khajornkiat today also confirmed that Mr Khaleche is well known as a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) fighter.
According to fight statistics aggregator BJJ Metrics, Mr Khaleche won silver in the ‘Male / Adult / White / Light’ category/division at the ‘Paris Fall 2023’ competition.
Tournament results provider ‘Smoothcomp’ has Mr Khaleche as a Blue belt in Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), with 42 wins: 13 by points, one by disqualification, 19 by submission, six by decision and three by ‘Walkover’.
According to his Instagram account, Mr Khaleche was in Phuket in mid-April, enjoying the sights and stopping by training camps, including those in Soi Ta-ied, Chalong.
Additional reporting by Natnaree Likidwatanasakun