Police officer, 3 others killed at Bangkok gambling den

Bangkok's Metropolitan Police Tuesday are hunting for a gunman, who allegedly shot dead four people including a police officer in a shoot-out on Monday night at a gambling den in the Thai capital, reported Xinhua.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Pol. Lt. Gen. Pakapong Pongpetra said a number of policemen have been assigned to locate and bring the unidentified, suspected gunman to justice very shortly, following the shoot-out at the gambling den on Rama III road in Thung Mahamek area.

The official said initial police investigation at the crime scene, which is part of a shophouse, has found out a gambling suspect had a personal problem with the policeman, identified as Pol. Maj. Watthaset Samniangprasert, who was killed by the gunman at large.

The slain police officer, who was a police inspector attached to Samae Dam police station on the Thonburi side of the city, was known to have had the gambling habit, the police commissioner said.

Three other people killed at the gambling den, owned by a man only known by nickname Sia Tee, included one male and two females.

One of the females was a Cambodian national hired at the gambling den where about 60 suspected gamblers were arrested.