The lone robber climbed into the room on 10th floor of City Smart Condominium while the four Canadians, including victim Mark Jay Keffer, 42, and a number of foreign guests were celebrating Christmas.

The robber, apparently a Thai man, asked them to hand over their valuables at gunpoint.

He started shooting when a woman guest, a relative of room owner Norzachray Nordin, a Bruneian, hit him with her handbag. Keffer and all three injured people were later sent to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Thong Lor police station duty inspector Pol Maj Saravuth Dejsri said he suspected the robber, who had easy access to the room from a communal area, could have been tipped off about the party by

people working or residing at the condo.