Mysterious woman attacks Thai girls
The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok
Thai Police have launched a massive manhunt for a woman, who on Friday sneaked into the prestigious Saint Joseph Convent School here and repeatedly stabbed four schoolgirls.
The victims, aged between 12 and 14 years old, remained in hospital on Friday evening, with three suffering serious injuries.
"We will urgently bring the attacker to justice," Bangkok Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lt. Gen. Pansiri Prapawat said.
The vicious stabbings were one of the country's most shocking attacks on children. They happened shortly after 7 a.m. just as parents had dropped by the school to send their children to class. Many of the students were dancing in exercises on the wall-less ground floor of the school compound when the attack took place.
"I was still watching the students dancing when I saw a physical education teacher carrying a blood-soaked student in his arms and rushing into a school van. Soon later, another teacher came carrying another injured student. I knew then that there must be something wrong," a panicked father Suksan Jittimaneerat, 40, said.
The official at the Public Health Ministry was at the school delivering his daughter to her Grade 1 class.
Witnesses later described a chaotic scene as teachers called their students inside classrooms and parents were ushered out of the school.
Many of the parents fainted, while others frantically tried to contact to their children on their cell phones to no avail as too many callers jammed signal networks.
Downtown Convent Road, on which the school is located, was also closed to traffic by police.
The school then locked the students in classrooms for their protection as police officers and male teachers scoured the compound to check whether the attacker was still inside.
Taxi motorcyclist Prapai Makhumlek, who was waiting for customers on Convent Road that morning, later told police that a woman walked hurriedly toward him and told him to take her to a bus stop near the Thai Japanese Friendship Bridge.
Her description turned out to match the attacker's.
"She told me to hurry. Initially, she said she wanted to go to Ploenchit but she changed her mind on the way. Finally, she got off at a bus stop near the bridge," he said.
The man said the woman, whom he believed was around 30 years old, also asked his help to open a roadside garbage bin, into which she threw something. When police checked the bin, they found a two-inch-wide fruit knife wrapped in cloth.
Three other bloodstained knives were found inside the school compound.
At 10 a.m,, the school began checking parents' identification cards before allowing them to pick up their children. The students were required to stay inside the classrooms until their parents came. All classes at the school were suspended yesterday.
Thai member of parliament Chuwit Kamolvisit also showed up to pick up his grade six daughter from the school, while deputy Public Health Minister Anutin Charnveerakul, Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang and Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin arrived at the scene to observe the situation.
Saint Joseph Convent School is a prestigious Catholic girls school in central Bangkok, with many of its students coming from rich families. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's wife, Khunying Pojaman, is an alumnus.
Following the gruesome attack, the injured students were rushed to the Bangkok Nursing Home Hospital, just 50 meters away.
Chayamon Trailertsamut, 14, sustained four knife wounds to her left arm and chest. Chamanat Arif, 12, needed an surgery after the knife cut into her liver and kidney. Jinjutha Rerksirinukool, 13, also needed an operation after a knife pierced her intestine. Apisatha Boonnam, 14, was stabbed in her left shoulder, back and chest, sustaining the most serious wounds with the knife cutting into her lung.
Hospital director Dr. Krittawit Lertusahakul said the injured children should be able to return home in the next three to five days. Experts from the Mental Health Department would help take care of the young victims.