Police say CCTV footage of last week's deadly shootout at a gambling den in Bangkok is too damaged to be of any use but they are stepping up their efforts to hunt down the real owner of the building.
The Central Police Forensic Science Division have been unable to open the files on the surveillance cameras seized from the den since they were destroyed while being removed.
The division's commissioner Pol Maj Gen Visuth Karkjoo said the division remained focused on the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Police say a man called "Ton" was involved in ripping out the CCTV cameras and they were doing all they can to locate him.
Sources say investigators are still trying to establish the precise links between those who removed gambling equipment from the building after the shootout and the illegal gambling business that operated there.
Meanwhile, Pol Lt Gen Phukphong Phongpetra, chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said police did not believe that a man named Wasant Phengyai was the tenant of the commercial building used as the gambling den off Rama III. Police were, however, investigating to see if Wasant knew "Hia Tee", the man believed to be the real tenant.
Sources said Wasant was hired to lease the building for a few months and take care of the den but that he was merely a henchman for "Ton", who took part in removing the CCTV cameras.
An off-duty police officer, Pol Maj Watthanaset Samniangprasert, was one of four people shot dead last Monday night.
Six people are accused of destroying evidence at the scene and one, a man called Thanabun, has confessed to the charge, said the Bangkok police chief.
He said investigators believed there were several gunmen and that at least seven people had been illegally gambling.