Bouncers at a Soi LK Metro go-go bar attacked three Australian tourists after they incited an alcohol-fueled argument.
The men in the mid-20s sustained bruises and were hauled away by police after the 3:30 a.m. brawl at the Showgirls bar in the early morning hours of Makha Bucha Day March 4.
The fight set off chaos at the bar, which was open far past the legal midnight closing time for a religious holiday, with broken glass and beer bottles scattered across the area.
Three bar customers are taken to the police station for further questioning after a bar brawl in Soi LK Metro.
Witnesses told police that the three heavily tattooed men got drunk and argued with guests at the next table. They got angry when security guards asked them to leave.
The Australian manager, Ronald James Kingsnorth, 71, tried to intervene, but one of the three men elbowed him in the face. The bouncers immediately set upon the trio, relentlessly kicking one man even after he was lying on the ground, witnesses reported.
Everyone involved was taken to the police station for further questioning. The bar was open again the next night, despite predictions it would suffer a 30-day closure order.
A similar incident at the Spicy Girls go-go bar on Walking Street did result in a month-long closure after bouncers assaulted a Kuwaiti military officer there in October. In June last year, the Lucifer disco also was closed for a month after its bouncers put two Israelis in the hospital.
In January, a bouncer at a North Pattaya beer bar beat a Russian tourist unconscious after mistakenly thinking he was running out on his bill. The bar remained open, but the bouncer was arrested.
Bar-bouncer attacks against foreign tourists has been a continual problem in Pattaya, with authorities adopting a zero-tolerance response to such attacks.
