At 4.30am yesterday, local cable TV reporter Panupong Thongprem called police and told them he was attacked by three males aged about 18 to 20 while travelling towards Pattaya police station on a motorcycle.

Panupong was on his way to the station to cover a story about thieves stealing clothes left on Jomtien beach by tourists while they swam.  Based on his knowledge of the case and the fact they were running from the direction of the beach, the reporter believed his attackers were the beach-theft suspects.

One of the suspects slashed Panupong's neck and left arm with a 30-centimetre-long knife, before they fled back towards the beach on a motorcycle, said Major Anuchet Kardsomboon, of Pattaya police station.

Superintendent Colonel Noppadol Wongnom led police officers and volunteers in a search of the area for the suspects.

Two police volunteers who caught up with the suspects - Ekkalak Meeso, 35, and Den Khajadpai, 33 - were attacked and severely injured, as was security guard Ampol Jaikla, 15, near the Jomtien Pacific Hotel, before the suspects disappeared into Soi Watboonkanchanaram.

Den later died in hospital.

Noppadol said police would publish sketches of the suspects and ask the public to help in the hunt for them.

As Den died on duty, police would help pay his funeral expenses and provide his family with financial assistance and a plaque in his honour, Noppadol said.

Police would also help pay the medical bills of the three who were injured, he said.

The Nation

Pattaya