PHUKET: A Kazakh man suspected of shooting and injuring a Russian man in a gun attack in Thalang district on Wednesday has been arrested, police said.
The suspect, who was identified as Artur Legay, was detained by immigration police at Phuket International Airport on Thursday morning.
According to the initial questioning, the man from Kazakhstan had checked in and stayed at a hotel in tambon Choeng Thale. Further investigation is currently underway.
At around 11.45am on Wednesday, the Phuket 191 emergency response centre received a report that a foreign man who was sitting in a car was seriously injured in a gun attack in front of a café in the business area of Laguna Phuket, about one kilometre from Choeng Thale police station.
Local police and rescuers rushed to the spot.
According to witnesses and security camera footage from the area, when the car arrived in front of the café, a man, whose face was covered, who had earlier arrived on a Honda PCX motorcycle, approached the car. He then fired four shots with a handgun at the man sitting inside through the windscreen. After the shooting, the attacker fled on the motorcycle.
The man in the car, later identified as Dmitry Aleynikov, a 44-year-old Russian national, sustained gunshot wounds to the chest, right armpit and left arm. Rescuers extracted the unconscious and bleeding man from the vehicle and rushed him to Thalang Hospital.
A police investigation led to the arrest of the suspected attacker.