Fire rages in Kata after attempts by vigilantes to smoke out a suspected thief.
Phuket fire fighters were soon on the scene.
PHUKET: Wasteland opposite Kata Night Bazaar was ablaze last night following attempts to smoke out a suspected thief on the run.
At
7.30pm, eyewitnesses reported seeing a Burmese man snatch a mobile
phone from another Burmese male outside a tailor’s shop on the busy
Thai Na Road in Kata. The man then ran off in the direction of Kata
Beach. The suspect was pursued by police south along Kata Road but
escaped along a pathway that connects Kata Road to Pak Bang Road and
runs parallel to the beach, witnesses said.
The police blocked
off both ends of the narrow path that cuts through the Club Med complex
but the suspect was able to escape. Around 20 minutes later, fire was
raging across wasteland adjacent to the complex, near the area that
police had been searching for the suspect.
No injuries were
reported and no buildings were damaged by the fire, which was quickly
put out by the fire brigade, and caused bars along the popular strip on
Kata Road to become engulfed in smoke.
Kata police told the Gazette
that civilians joined in the hunt for the suspect and that the fire
broke out when the vigilantes attempted to smoke out the suspect. It
has not been confirmed whether the suspect was eventually apprehended.
