SAVAGE killings within 14 hours set Phuket police pursuing a gunman and questioning witnesses in a second case where friends fell out over one man videoing another man's wife in a toilet.

Burmese worker A-tu, 21, was drinking in a pay-day ritual with four friends yesterday at the Safari elephant camp hill north of Patong when he boasted about a secret video.

His mobile telephone clip, he told the other drinkers, was taken of women inside the camp's toilet block. He listed the names of several women, then the face of one man in the group fell as he heard his wife's name.

With that, police allege, Surinya, 36, stabbed A-tu twice in the skull. He died later in Patong Hospital. Surinya - who like most Burmese has only one name - was arrested at the camp, where police found him still groggy from the drinking session.

A HANDGUN and seven bullets was the preferred method of disposal of an assassin who struck at 4.30am today outside the Say Yes Pub in Patak Road, Karon.

Wichit Wongaun, 28, had gone with four friends, all workers at a construction site near Phuket Zoo, south of Phuket City, to the Saraphanplang pub in Karon.

There was a dispute with people at the next table and a scuffle followed, witnesses told police later. Khun Wichit and his group were asked to leave the pub, so they move a kilometre or so up the road to the Say Yes pub.

About 4.30am today, Khun Wichit went outside Say Yes to smoke a cigarette. A bullet struck him in the back. Police said that as Khun Wichit ran back towards the pub, seven more bullets struck him, mostly in the back.

Still at an early stage of their investigation, Chalong police have no clear suspects yet but are following up on the fight earlier in the morning.

Khun Wichit's body is at Vachira Hospital in Phuket City.