KHON KAEN: Police were hunting six drug trafficking suspects who shot and wounded a policeman while fleeing arrest in Khon Kaen on Tuesday.
Pol Maj Gen Nopakao Somanat, provincial police chief, said on Wednesday that the six men fled from the Charm Boutique Resort hotel on Kangsadan Road in Khon Kaen municipality on Tuesday afternoon when police moved in to arrest them.
He said police encountered three of the suspects in the hotel lobby. He said that one of them, identified as Anon Onsakhon, fired shots at police before rushing out of the hotel. The 27-year-old suspect is a native of Kranuan district. The six suspects fled in two vehicles.
One of the vehicles was a white Toyota Fortuner. When a police car tried to block its passage, a person in the car fired a shot at it, hitting a police sergeant major in his leg.
The fugitives' Toyota was abandoned about three kilometres from the hotel. A delivery motorcyclist said a man police identified as Mr Anon stole his bike at gunpoint and rode off on it.
Pol Maj Gen Nathanon Prachum, investigating commander of Provincial Police Region 4, said Mr Anon was wanted for drug trafficking in Kranuan district of Khon Kaen and Tha Khantho district of Kalasin.
Police believed all six suspects remained in the Khon Kaen area, he said.
On Tuesday police found about 150 rounds of ammunition in a hotel room that a woman from Chaiyaphum province had booked for Mr Anon's group of six.