Warrants were being prepared today for the arrest of two Swedish men, wanted over the murder of a third Swede on Phuket on Monday night. Phuket police believe the pair are still on Phuket and may be dangerous if confronted.


PHUKET: Police are hunting two Swedish men believed to have fled a luxurious Phuket housing complex where another Swede was murdered with a stab-wound to the neck last night.

Phuket airport and other airport exits and land border crossings throughout Thailand have been alerted for Tommy Viktor Soderlund, 26, and Johan Hellbacken, 36, who are thought to have ridden from The Lantern housing compound in upscale Phuket City after the killing.

International policing authorities are also being alerted and a check is being made on the activities of both men.

It is believed that the pair had previous business dealings in Sweden and Pattaya with the fatally stabbed man, named today as Maksim Schantz, 25.

Horrified residents of the exclusive estate looked on last night about 9pm as Mr Schantz, bleeding from a stab wound to the neck, staggered to the Phuket City compound's gate security post and cried for help.

He died on the ground near the gateway. Today, a massive search across Phuket and beyond was being organised for the men who may have been his killers.

It is believed the pair, who had only recently arrived at The Lantern and moved in as surprise neighbors to their former friend, did not leave through the front entrance but made their escape through a hole cut in a fence above a swimming pool.

In a side lane, the pair are alleged to have forced a local man to give them his motorcycle, then took off. Mr Viktor and Mr Hellbacken are said to be inseparable friends.

Mr Viktor and Mr Schantz had had a falling out over business and a woman, Phuket police believe. Both men were involved in a marketing operation together in Sweden, and later in Pattaya.

Mr Schantz appeared to have fought with his attackers. A piece of his t-shirt was found on the ground near his motorcycle, along with a couple of plastic wrist restraints.

Most of the personal effects in a backpack - including an Apple laptop and cash - appear to have been ignored by his assailants.

Mr Schantz migrated to Sweden from Russia at the age of three with his mother and a sister. The women own and run two condominiums in Pattaya.

Killings involving expats are rare on Phuket and mostly the result of disputes among expats rather than random murders.

In an alert for the apprehension of Englishman Lee Aldhouse after the killing of American Dashawn Longfellow in August last year, Mr Aldhouse fled Phuket by road, crossed into Cambodia then made his way to Singapore.

He was eventually apprehended at London's Heathrow airport and is now awaiting a decision on an application for his extradition to face trial on Phuket.

The Lantern, providing upscale accommodation in three-storey duplexes near Phuket's British International School and the Royal Phuket Marina, is described online as having been ''designed within the concept of zen . . . to represent the quest for tranquility and balance to improve life and enjoy surroundings to the fullest.''