Hospital guard 'killed over parking space'

A security guard at Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok was killed in an apparent dispute with a visitor over a parking space, police said on Saturday.

Phaya Thai district police who were called to the hospital near Victory Monument at 11am on Saturday found Sanchai Wangngam, 30, lying dead with a deep gash in his neck. His body was about 50 metres from his security booth and a 30cm steel pipe was found close by.

A preliminary investigation discovered that a man had driven into the hospital grounds and parked a white Honda Jazz with a Bangkok licence plate opposite the booth.

He was seen having an argument with Sanchai about a parking space for a while. He then got a knife from his car and attacked Sanchai. The seriously injured guard reportedly grabbed a steel pipe and attempted to defend himself but later fell dead. The attacker then drove away, heading left on Phaya Thai Road.

The attacker was said to have been a 28-year-old former medical staff member at the state-run hospital's Skin Disease Institute. Police are trying to locate him from closed-circuit camera footage.