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A female student sustained knife wounds to her face in an attack by students at Sripatum University in Bangkok's Chatuchak district last Tuesday.

Businesswoman Kanchuda Jaipathum, 48, said yesterday that her 22yearold daughter Supreeya, a thirdyear Business Administration student, was attacked by five col¬leagues, one of whom used a knife to inflict face and neck wounds that needed 72 stitch¬es.

Supreeya said that she tried to walk away after a fellow stu¬dent started an argument in a lift, but this woman and a group of four or five of her friends assaulted her.

Friend beaten too

"My friend, Dao, tried to stop them but she was also beaten," said Supreeya, adding that she had had no previous conflict with her attackers and she only knew their faces be¬cause they studied in the same year. She said she was shocked by what happened and was still having trouble sleeping.

Kanchuda said she wanted police to catch the assailants quickly as the knife could have easily blinded her daughter or worse. "If it was a normal fist¬fight, I wouldn't press charges but this caused my daughter facial scars. She was hospi¬talised for a week and will miss her exams," she said.

Kanchuda said Supreeya had to go to hospital with her friends and teachers then replied to her request for the attackers' names that their parents would turn them in later.

However, a source from the university said the university knew the attack right after it happened as its officials took Supreeya to the hospital and knew that Kanchuda later informed police on Tuesday evening. The officer in charge of the case, Pol Lt Col Samroeng Amphanthong from Bang Khen police station, said that Kanchuda had filed a police complaint on Tuesday night and the initial investigation had already identified one of the attackers. He said the teachers had also contacted police to say that the attackers would turn themselves in, but no clear date for their surren¬der was given.

Police are waiting on the re¬sults of medical examinations before deciding whether to charge the attackers with at¬tempted murder, Samroeng said. So far, the wounds seemed to warrant an aggra¬vated assault charge, he added.