Tourist rents gun, kills himself

Tourist rents gun, kills himself

A police officer makes notes at the Thalang Phuket shooting range where a young tourist shot himself to death on Saturday.
A police officer makes notes at the Thalang Phuket shooting range where a young tourist shot himself to death on Saturday.

PHUKET — A young British tourist was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head in an apparent suicide at a shooting range in Thalang district of Phuket on Saturday.

Police were alerted to the incident at the Thalang Phuket shooting range at 3.50pm.

There, they found a shirtless caucasian male aged 22 with a British passport, lying on his back on the floor with a pistol near his right hand.

The incident was fully captured by a closed-circuit camera and the video was posted online by some local news websites. Images of the man's passport were also shown to reporters.

Police questioned Prasert Pasaman, 41, a taxi driver, who told them the man had quarrelled with a male friend at the Sunwing Resort & Spa nearby before hailing his taxi.

"I then asked him where he wanted to go and he said 'Take me somewhere I can shoot', so I took him to the shooting range," Mr Prasert was quoted as saying.

He told local media that the man showed no sign of stress while he was in the taxi.

CCTV footage showed the man taking off his shirt and renting an 11mm pistol. He then loaded seven bullets, started shooting at the target and hit the bullseye every time.

After that, he loaded another three bullets but this time he turned the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

The CCTV video shows him appear to turn the weapon on himself as the shooting instructor tries desperately to intervene.

The man's body was taken to Thalang Hospital.

Police said they were collecting more evidence and informing the UK embassy so that the man's family can be notified.

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