SAMUT PRAKAN: A woman was stabbed to death after she ran naked into a ditch to escape a man who had set her on fire in Bang Pu area on Monday afternoon.
The attack occurred in full view of people who tried in vain to help her, with one suffering burns.
The attacker fled in a pickup truck.
Police and rescue workers rushed to Soi Nikhom Bang Pu 9 after being alerted to the brutal attack at around 3pm.
When entering the soi, they found the body of a woman, aged around 40-45, lying dead in a ditch. She was naked with multiple burns and six stab wounds on her body. A gallon of petrol and pieces of burned clothes were scattered around the alley.
Witnesses told police that the attacker was a Thai man, aged around 40-45. He wore only black shorts and fled in a white pickup truck with Bangkok licence plates.
Before the fatal attack, the witnesses said they were cleaning their song-taew vehicles when the pickup truck arrived. They saw a woman wrapped in a towel running for help. When the pickup truck driver walked towards her, the witnesses said they guarded her.
The man then walked back to his vehicle and came back with a gallon of petrol. He threw fuel onto her and the others and ignited it, forcing all to flee in flames.
The severely-burned woman jumped into the ditch to escape, but the man once again went back to his vehicle and returned with a sharp knife. Witnesses said he then stabbed her before fleeing.
One of the witnesses was an elderly man who suffered burns to his arms and was rushed to a hospital.
Pol Maj Gen Pallop Araemlah, chief of Samut Prakan police, ordered police from all stations to hunt down the attacker.
