Chiang Mai police are investigating an incident in which two drunk Australian men, a father and son, were assaulted by unidentified people in the city early Tuesday.
The assault occurred in front of a convenience store at the entrance to Chiang Mai Land housing estate on Chang Klan Road in Muang district at about 6am.
The attacked Australians — Peter Paul Joseph Hernbaker, 60, and his 18-year-old son Jackson Peter Kusen — ran away from the unidentified attackers and went into hiding in an ubosot (chapel) of nearby Wat Hui Faii where monks alerted paramedics and Muang Chiang Mai police, Pacha Rattanapun, deputy chief of Provincial Police Region 5, said Wednesday.
Pol Maj Gen Pacha said the pair had entered a karaoke bar before they were beaten up. But police could not tell yet if they had had an argument with people in the bar.
Mr Kusen reportedly sustained chest injuries caused by a sharp object while his father was less badly injured. The two men were admitted to Rajavej Hospital and have been allowed to return to their hotel on Sri Don Chai Road.
Muang Chiang Mai police investigator Pol Sub Lt Jeerasak Nakham, who is in charge of the case, said he had made initial inquiries but would not release details.
He said he had arranged for employees of the karaoke bar to appear in a line-up, but Mr Hernbaker and Mr Kusen could not remember their attackers because they were very drunk at the time.
Police are questioning witnesses including bar staff and checking CCTV footage from the convenience store and the temple.
A temple staffer who declined to be named said one of the injured told him a group of men attacked them because they wanted to snatch a bag from them. They ran way without knowing where to go and then decided to hide in the temple as they thought it would be safe.