Boys admit pelting train with stones and bottles

Boys admit pelting train with stones and bottles

METHEE MUANGKAEW

Trang _ Five young boys have confessed to pelting a passing train with stones and glass bottles, injuring a male passenger, in Trang on Sunday evening. They said they got the idea from news reports of similar attacks on vehicles elsewhere and did it for fun, according to police.

Trang police arrested the five boys, aged from eight to 12, yesterday.

The boys threw stones, dirt and empty liquor bottles at the southbound train, cutting the face of the injured passenger.

They are from tambon Nong Prue in Ratsada district and attend a local school there.

The backyards of their homes are separated from the railway track only by bushes.

Police said the boys admitted they attacked the train after seeing news reports on television about robbers who threw rocks at passing vehicles elsewhere in Thailand.

They pelted train No. 84 travelling from Bangkok to Trang about 6.12pm on Sunday.

Passenger Boonthanes Harnthalay, 21, sustained a cut in his forehead that needed 20 stitches.

Suthin Veerasuk, a 33-year-old uncle and guardian of one of the boys, said that on Sunday night his nephew had boasted to friends about the attack on the train.

He had then warned and beaten his nephew, but was not aware that someone had been injured in the attack.

Mr Suthin said he was deeply sorry and would not object to legal action against the boy.

Trang police chief Pol Maj-Gen Prasert Chansawang said parents should closely watch their children to ensure they did not get up to such pranks. The boys would be charged with attempted murder but how they were to be punished would depend on the justice system, he said.

Boontham Harnthalay, the father of the injured man, said that at first he had wanted to press for the harshest punishment for those responsible for the attack. But when he learned they were children he was stunned.

He said he would leave the matter in the hands of the police.

He also awarded local police 20,000 baht in cash for making such quick arrests.