A 14-year-old boy was angry after his friends teased him about his parents’ names, so he threw gasoline at his 12-year-old opponent and set him on fire in revenge, forcing him to jump into the water.
This incident happened at the house of Mr. Suriyan in Ban Na Sok, Wen Phrabat Subdistrict, Tha Uthen District, Nakhon Phanom Province. Mr. Suriyan said that Boy A (assumed name), 12 years old, the injured person, and Boy B (assumed name), 14 years old, the perpetrator, were friends of his son. Every evening, the children would gather at his house to fish and play together like children do.
On the day of the incident, my son and his friend ran to tell me to go help Boy A. I hurried to see what happened and found Boy A lying naked in the room with a cloth covering his chest. I went to look and found a large burn wound. I asked him until I found out that before the incident, Boy A and Boy B were joking around with each other’s parents’ names. Boy B got upset and went to get a water bottle to drink gasoline from a
motorcycle. He then threw it at Boy A and set him on fire until Boy A had to run and jump into the water and crawl back up. The children helped Boy A to lie down in the room and waited for me to come back from outside. After that, Boy B apologized for pouring gasoline and setting the fire because he was so angry that he got injured. I think he felt sorry for it and I personally reprimanded him for doing that to his younger brother because I had seen him playing together all the time.
Boy A said that the incident was caused by teasing his parents’ names, and he came to his senses and quickly jumped into the water and crawled back up. At that time, his friends, including Boy B, helped him to lie down in the room and apologized for hurting him. He forgave his friends, but he had to ask his parents first. As for his condition, he is safe now, but the doctor still has to keep him in the hospital to treat his wounds, fearing infection, because he still has a fever. It was lucky that the amount of water was small.
If it was a lot, it could have caused death.
The father of the injured boy, A, said that he has now filed a daily record at Tha Uthen Police Station and there has been no negotiation on compensation yet. He has to wait for his son to recover first. He admitted that he is still confused and does not know what to do because the children have always played together and fought like children do. However, he did not think that it would be this violent.
Source: Thai News Agency