Five underage boys are being questioned Wednesday about a series of attacks on tourists around the Tritrang beach area on the southern end of Patong Bay.

Their latest victim, Austrian Rupert Wilhelmstatter, 52, had his motorcycle kicked from beneath him and was knifed and robbed of 5000 baht and US$300 as he fought back on December 6 against at least four youths, Patong police say.

Mr Wilhelmstatter, who was riding back to his Patong resort, was stabbed in the right side during the struggle and is being treated at Bangkok Hospital Phuket after being transferred from Patong Hospital.

The boys aged 13 and 14 confessed to other robberies of tourists in the area on November 30 and December 3.


PHUKET: Police in Patong are holding five young men after a spate of robberies at Tritrang Beach, south of Patong on Phuket's west coast, in which several tourists were involved.

It is understood a Frenchman, an Italian and an Austrian were victims in separate incidents, with the Austrian threatened with a knife and stabbed.