A 14-year-old schoolboy was held for stabbing two fellow students during a brawl near their school in Yan Ta Khao district of Trang on Thursday evening. The victims sustained serious knife wounds.
The incident occurred on Trang-Palian Road in tambon Yan Ta Khao, about 100 metres away from a well-known secondary school, said Pol Capt Suwit Suwanrat, deputy investigation chief at Yan Ta Khao police station, who was reported about 4.30pm on Thursday.
Upon reaching the scene, police found a pool of blood, and the two injured students had already been taken to Yan Ta Khao Hospital.
Both students, aged 14 and in Mathayom Suksa 2 (Grade 8), suffered critical injuries. The first victim was stabbed in the right breast, penetrating the lung, while the second victim was stabbed in the left breast near the heart. Due to their conditions, doctors transferred them to Trang Hospital.
According to police investigation, the victims and four fellow students walked from the school on Thursday evening and encountered a group of five students, also Grade 8 from the same school. The two groups had a confrontation near the entrance of a restaurant, approximately 100 meters away from the school's gate.
As talks failed, a brawl ensued. One student from the rival group pulled out a sharp-pointed knife, stabbing the first victim until he fell to the ground. The second victim rushed to help but was also stabbed by the same attacker. After the attack, the assailant and his friends fled on motorcycles.
Police managed to arrest the attacker, a 14-year-old Grade 8 student, at a house in tambon Thung Krabue in the same district. A blood-stained knife was seized after it was dumped to a ditch at an oil palm plantation.
Pol Col Poonsak Saengsae, chief of Yan Ta Khao police station, said the attacker admitted to stabbing the two students after they failed to patch up their personal dispute, leading to a brawl.
The attacker was detained for questioning. A psychologist, a prosecutor and concerned officials also joined the investigation.
The knife attack took place just a few days after violence involving schoolboys in Bangkok. The attacker faced a murder charge of murder after a fellow student was stabbed in the neck and abdomen with a fruit knife during morning assembly in Bangkok on Monday.