A German tourist was brutally attacked by ten men , who used motorcycle helmets to violently beat him in Pattaya.
At approximately 4:06 a.m. on Tuesday, March 25, the Pattaya received a call reporting a physical assault with injuries on Pattaya Beach Road in the Nongprue subdistrict.
Rescuers, accompanied by Pattaya City Police, rushed to the scene, where a crowd of Thai and foreign tourists had gathered after the chaotic scene.
The victim, identified as David Adrian Lelonek, a 40-year-old German tourist, was found severely beaten, his body covered in abrasions, his face swollen and his left eyebrow cut with blood.
After receiving emergency first aid, he was rushed to hospital for treatment.
Through an interpreter, Mr. Lelonek told police he did not remember what triggered the attack.
He described how he was suddenly ambushed by more than 10 men, leaving him terrified and desperate.
In an attempt to escape, he quickly grabbed his motorcycle and fled, seeking help from local villagers before police and rescuers arrived.
The scene was filmed by a passerby, revealing the violence of the attack.
The gang of attackers, one of whom was wearing a motorcycle taxi jacket, relentlessly punched, kicked and stomped on the tourist, with one of them using a helmet as a weapon to hit him repeatedly.
Despite pleas from onlookers, the attackers continued their brutal attack until the victim lay motionless on the ground.
Thais participated in the lynching without knowing the reason
Image taken from a video of the attack on a German tourist by 10 Thais in Pattaya on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
After viewing the footage, Lt. Col. Arun Sapanon, Assistant Commissioner for Investigations at Pattaya Police Station, immediately opened an investigation into the attack.
Within hours, three of the perpetrators, Ta, 18, Benz, 25, and Sek, 27, were arrested not far from the scene of the attack.
The three men confessed to the assault, saying they had seen the motorcycle taxi driver and assumed the foreigner had done something wrong .
They claimed to have acted out of a desire to defend their fellow Thais, but acknowledged that their reaction had been far too violent.
Lieutenant Colonel Arun expressed his dismay at the incident, stressing that such acts of violence, especially against tourists, damage Pattaya's image as a tourist destination.
He urged the public to always report crimes to the police rather than taking matters into their own hands.
The injured tourist remains under medical supervision and police are continuing their efforts to locate the other attackers.
We will therefore have to wait for the arrest of the main protagonists before knowing more about this affair, which only serves to tarnish the image of the seaside resort even further, while attacks on foreign tourists are on the rise.
See :
Thailand: British man dies 9 years after horrific attack in Pattaya
Thailand: Tourist on livestream attacked by woman in Pattaya
Thailand: Increase in attacks on foreigners by delinquent teenagers in Pattaya
Thailand: Belgian beaten with sticks and robbed by teenagers at Christmas in Pattaya
Thailand: Death penalty for 3 foreigners who killed a German in Pattaya
Thailand: Swiss man violently attacked by teenagers in Pattaya
Thailand: British criminal arrested after robbing tourists in Pattaya
Source: The Thaiger
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5 comments
It makes me less inclined to go to Thailand, there are attacks every day.
It's worse than France, but in France, they attack tourists to rob them.
On the other hand, 95% of the time it seems to be about the same places: Pattaya, Phuket & Co.
And I think that most of the time, the tourist's behavior is also at fault and it could have been avoided by being a little smarter and more discreet.
I don't deny that there are also probably cases where the tourist/expat hasn't asked for anything and it still happens to them.
There is a general increase in violence.
It is not only against tourists and foreigners, although these are easy targets, often because of their money.
There are several possible reasons for this: poverty has increased, and many people live on a few baht; when I say "a few," I mean 10 or 20 baht.
In addition, they are riddled with debt, which forces them to seek credit from small local dealers.
Moreover, basic prices have soared, even that of rice!
In this climate of despair, alcohol is omnipresent, and now there are also many drugs.
To return to this specific case, we are in a "mafia" area at 4 a.m., with "rich" tourists who are only there for a few days and who do not speak Thai.
All of this creates a dangerous context.
The land of smiles is really far away.
GG,
I go there and know this area very well, I live there.
Often conflicts between locals and foreigners begin with a misunderstanding, not necessarily voluntary, but indeed a difference in culture and language, not to mention the irony that we Europeans use and understand, but which in Thailand is not understood, and even less irony... can sometimes lead to this kind of situation.
Limit your interactions with this kind of person in these kinds of places as much as possible and generally things will go well...
Pattaya, Phuket etc. are indeed more often put in the spotlight, because these places are very populated, but the same thing happens in certain smaller and less touristy towns, we are less aware of it because we talk about it less in the news...
As for Pattaya…
It lives up to its name of sultry Pattaya...
10 against 1 person, that's enough in the mentality.
The police are not going to put one of them in jail.
If 10 foreigners do this to a Thai, it will be in the newspapers for 10 days.