A morning commute through one of Bangkok’s busiest shopping districts turned violent on Friday. Two rival student groups attacked each other on a skywalk, sending four people to hospital.
Pathum Wan police received the report at 7.50am, as students were making their way to class. Officers arrived to find a group of students trading heavy punches and kicks on the elevated walkway. Passers-by scattered to avoid being caught in it.
Emergency medical staff and rescue foundation volunteers treated the injured at the scene. Four students were taken to Hua Chiew Hospital with what responders described as severe wounds. No weapons were reported.
Police detained eight students over the brawl. Both groups came from well-known educational institutions near the skywalk. Officers said they are preparing legal action rather than releasing the students with a warning.
The location is part of what makes the case awkward for authorities. The Pathum Wan skywalk network links some of the city’s largest malls and mass transit stations. It carries heavy foot traffic at exactly the hour the fight broke out.
Rivalries between vocational and technical institutions have produced street violence in Bangkok for decades, and the skywalk has featured before. Police have floated a Pathum Wan model that would combine closer monitoring of known flashpoints with intervention through the schools themselves.
Whether that changes anything is another question. Previous crackdowns have tended to follow the same pattern, with arrests after an incident and quiet resumption once attention moves on.
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The story Eight students held after rival groups brawl on packed Bangkok skywalk as seen on Thaiger News.
