Man hunt underway for Sukhumvit area gold shop robber

Police have launched a manhunt for a lone robber who escaped with about 11 million baht in gold ornaments and 170,000 baht in cash from a gold shop located inside a mall on Sukhumvit Soi 77, in Phra Khanong district of Bangkok, late on Friday night.

CCTV footage in the shop shows that, at about 11.37pm, the lone robber slipped into the shop through the half-closed roller-door and then threw a bag to a staff member. Then he splashed liquid from a bottle, which is believed to have been petrol, onto the floor and display counters as he ordered all the staff to put all the gold ornaments into his bag at gunpoint.

The whole robbery took about two minutes and then suspect fled the scene.

Police say that the shop was about to close and all the staff were collecting the gold ornaments from the display windows for checks and to put them in the safe overnight.

A total of about 2.24kg (147 baht weight) in gold ornaments, worth an estimated 11.2 million baht, were stolen.