CHON BURI – A brawl over the singing quality of a Isan song left one man dead in a karaoke club here early Wednesday.
Chon Buri police were called to the bar on the bypass road in tambon Ban Suan in Muang district around 3am. They found Somrak Phokai, 31, with a severe stab wound to the stomach. He was taken to Chon Buri Hospital where he later died.
Also hospitalised for a head wound was Arthit Jaisue, 31.
Somrak, of Roi Et province, went to the karaoke club with a Khon Kaen co-worker. According to waitress Cholnidcha Inpech, the two men chose two northeastern songs to sing. But after the first, Ekaluck Salakanya, a 29-year-old sitting at an adjacent table, and his friend objected to their rendition and muted the karaoke machine.
Ms Cholnidcha said Mr Ekaluck's father then smacked Somrak in the head with his hand, which set off a fight between the two tables. Someone in Mr Ekaluck's group knifed Somrak and Mr Ekaluck fled the scene.
Pol Lt Charinthorn Suaypan, a case officer at Chon Buri police station, pledged that officers will track down the killer.