NAKHON SI THAMMARAT: An illegal gunsmith with a surveillance warning system fled his rented house before it was raided by police on Wednesday.
Police said they found a well-equipped workshop in the house, with electric and manual tooling machinery, many homemade gun barrels and replica guns, including assault rifles, he would convert to use live ammunition.
The suspect was identified as Weerayut Pantharangsi, 32. He was not at house number 556/401 in Kan Kheha 2 housing estate in Muang district when police raided it on Wednesday morning.
Provincial governor Kachornkiat Rakpanitmanee said at the house that the suspect narrowly escaped arrest. The house was equipped with a surveillance system, with cameras that allowed the occupant to see people arriving at the housing estate and in the vicinity of the house.
This had enabled him to evade arrest.
Pol Lt Gen Surapong Thanomchit, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 8, said the suspect had modified many replica guns for use with live ammunition. Most of his customers were young people.
The raid was part of an active campaign to suppress illegal gun production. It follows the Siam Paragon mall shooting rampage by a teenager using a modified replica gun in Bangkok on Oct 3.