A Rangsit University football player was shot dead and his teammate sustained stab wounds in a pre-dawn attack near the campus in Pathum Thani early Saturday.
The attack took place behind Rangsit Unversity in tambon Lak Hok of Muang district, said Pol Capt Pramarn Yuanyee, a duty officer at the Pak Khlong Rangsit police station, who was alerted around 4am on Saturday.
Arthit Saisalang, 20, a second-year student in the Faculty of Communication Arts and a striker on the Rangsit football team, was shot and seriously wounded. Suwasin Pathummet, 20, sustained serious knife wounds. Both were rushed to a nearby hospital where Mr Arthit was pronounced dead, said police.
A police investigation found that the two students and two other friends, who were all players on the team, were travelling on a motorcycle on the way back to their dormitory after leaving a restaurant at the entrance of the Muang Ek housing estate at about 4am.
As their motorcycle, ridden by Arthit, neared the dormitory, three men on another motorcycle followed them and one shot was fired into the students, hitting Arthit in the right shoulder.
Pongsathorn Boonsong, 21, who survived the attack, told police that he took control of the bike and continued riding, but the assailants gave chase.
One of the assailants then held Suwasin at gunpoint to force his bike to stop, said the student. Two of the three attackers then used knives to stab Suwasin before fleeing on the waiting motorcycle.
Pongsathorn said his group had never had any conflict with anyone. He did not know the attackers.
Police plan to examining footage from closed-circuit television cameras for further details.
On the Rangsit Univesity Thailand Facebook page, the univeristy posted a statement asking police to swiftly arrest the culprits. It also asked for breath-alcohol testing chekpoints to be set up at the Muang Ek housing estate every night, and for action against operators of nightspots operating beyond the legal closing time.