Ping pong bomb thrown from motorbike kills boy

NONG BUA LAM PHU: A 14-year-old boy died on Sunday night and another was injured in an explosion caused by a ping pong bomb thrown by a similarly aged rival on a motorcycle.

Pol Col Krittidet Pathum Phatthananon, the Nong Bua Lamphu Police Station superintendent, said police received a report of the boy’s death on Road 210 in tambon Na Kham Hai in Muang district. Police from the Forensics Division and a doctor on duty at Nong Bua Lamphu Hospital examined the scene and found the youth, named only as “Panyakorn”, with a wound to the left side of his head.

According to the police, the dead boy was riding a motorcycle home with two of his friends after seeing a Mor Lam concert in the village. They noticed some youths on a motorbike following them as they continued to ride along the road.

Then the rider heard three loud explosions and turned to see Panyakorn fall from the motorbike with a great deal of blood gushing from a facial wound. It was said that he died very soon after. The other boy on the bike suffered minor injuries. Police later arrested three suspects aged 14 who confessed to making the grenades themselves following an earlier feud.

Pol Col Krittidet said the parents of children who commit such crimes are neglecting their obligations and must face legal consequences as well.