The incident, on Srisena Rd near the bridge to Koh Siray, was recorded on CCTV in front of a motorbike shop.
The CCTV footage was posted online earlier today, showing a man riding a scooter kicking over another motorbike that was carrying a woman and a child. Both fell onto the road and luckily escaped any serious injury.
The man continued his attack and picked up a chair and threatened to hit the woman with it. The woman grabbed the chair and struck back at the man.
The video ends with the man retreating out of camera shot.
The CCTV footage posted online quickly went viral on local Thai media sites and spurring an outrage over the police allegedly doing nothing to apprehend the man in the video.
However, Col Sompong today (Oct 8) explained that his officers were already aware of the attack and the investigating officer had already called the man and woman in for questioning.
The man carrying out the attack was identified as Ekachai Kongchim, 35.
The woman attacked was identified as Rattita KhonKhlong, 29.
The woman had already reported the attack to officers at Phuket City Police Station, Col Sompong confirmed.
“The investigating officer has already asked the victim to have her injuries examined by doctors to be used as evidence in the case,” he said.
Ms Rattita reported that she was riding with her daughter from her boyfriend’s house to her mother's house when the attack occurred at about 4pm.
As she rode past Phuket Grocery, she rode behind a man who was riding his motorbike slowly in the middle of the road, she said.
The man was not watching where he was riding and their two motorbikes nearly collided, she explained.
Ms Rattita admitted that she shouted at the man for him to watch where he was going, leading to an argument.
At that time, a man she knew approached her and asked if everything was okay, to which she replied she was, and the man who she nearly collided with rode away.
When she arrived at the intersection of Sri Sena Rd and Anuphas Phuketkan Rd, the man rode up to her again and shouted at her, “Do you have problem with me?”, leading to an argument again, she said.
Then the attack happened as seen in the video, Ms Rattita explained.
Ms Rattita confirmed that she reported the incident at Phuket City Police Station, during which the investigating officer asked her to go to a hospital to have her injuries examined.
Ms Rattita was to return to the police station tomorrow (Oct 9) to settle the affair with her attacker in the presence of the investigating officer, she added.
“After the video was posted on social media, police called me to come to the police station this evening (Oct 8),” she said.
“According to the evidence, it has been confirmed that police did not ignore or do nothing about this as commented on social media,” Col Sompong said.
“Everything has to be done in accordance with the law. Please understand that police are following standard procedures,” he said.