Authorities Pursue Legal Action Against Parents Following Teen Knife Fight in Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya: Authorities are preparing to take legal action against the parents of a gang of teenagers who engaged in a knife fight in the middle of a street in Ayutthaya. Two gangs of students were caught fighting and chasing each other with knives on Rojana Road, the Ayutthaya-Wang Noi highway. Legal action is also pending against their parents. According to Thai News Agency, a video clip shows two groups of students fighting on Rojana Road, the Ayutthaya-Wang Noi route. One group, wearing school uniforms and shorts, was attacking the other in sweatpants and jackets on the road, using knives as weapons. One group then rammed their motorcycle into the other, but crashed, leaving the rider unconscious. After the incident, a food vendor recounted seeing a group of 15-16 year old students riding motorcycles together and violently attacking each other. Even though villagers and other vendors tried to shout at them to stop and pretended to say, "The police are coming," the students ignored them. Following the in cident, police at Wang Noi Police Station questioned a 16-year-old student who had driven his motorcycle into another group of students, causing him to lose consciousness. The student, a vocational school student, explained that before the incident, he was riding his motorcycle home with a group of friends when a rival group started a fight and threw firecrackers at them. Seeing that his friends were being attacked, he intentionally drove his motorcycle into the rival group, hoping to scatter them. However, he lost control of his motorcycle, fell face down on the ground, and lost consciousness. He was then taken to the hospital. While tracing leads, police discovered that the perpetrators came from only two schools: one school had 10 students involved, and the other had 13. They contacted the schools and parents, urging the youths to turn themselves in. They were then charged with "jointly assaulting another person causing physical or mental harm, and jointly carrying a knife in a city, village, or public pl ace without reasonable cause." Eight motorcycles used in the incident were also seized. Regarding this incident, Police Colonel Somjet Maenbut, Superintendent of Wang Noi Police Station, revealed that legal action is not only being taken against the child but also against the guardian based on the evidence.