Midnight Escape from Thai Police Station: Chinese Fraud Suspect Recaptured

An adrenaline-filled escape occurred at the Pattaya City Police Station in Thailand in the early hours of the 5th: a 38-year-old Chinese fraud suspect suddenly leapt from a window as he was being taken to a second-floor interrogation room, quickly escaping the station.

According to reports from Thai news outlet Jinkan Thailand and Thai Headline News Agency, the suspect, Li Jian (transliteration), was intercepted by immigration officers on the night of the 4th at Bangkok's Don Mueang International Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Da Nang, Vietnam, and was immediately transported to Pattaya Police Station for questioning.

At around 1:30 am on the 5th, Li claimed he "needed to contact a lawyer" during interrogation. When the deputy investigator briefly left his seat to retrieve some documents, Li quickly turned towards a sliding window at the back of the interrogation room, forcibly pushed it open, and leapt down to the cement ground behind the police station to escape. Pursuing officers immediately followed him down, but after colliding with a chair and getting injured, were forced to abandon the chase.

The Pattaya City Police Station launched a large-scale manhunt. Despite the stringent security, the suspect managed to flee Pattaya. Surveillance footage showed that after escaping the police station, Li first took a songthaew, then switched to a motorcycle taxi, and finally transferred to another vehicle heading to North Pattaya before proceeding to Chanthaburi Province from northern Pattaya.

In the afternoon of the 5th, a hotel security guard in Chanthaburi Province noticed a suspicious man lingering in the hotel lobby, looking nervous and closely resembling the photo on the wanted notice. The security guard compared a surveillance snapshot with police databases and confirmed his identity, immediately notifying local law enforcement. Upon receiving the report, local police quickly arrived at the scene and arrested Li Jian.

At around 1 am on the 6th, Li Jian was transferred back to Pattaya City Police Station. He appeared extremely tense, with his head down, avoiding direct eye contact with others.

A related official at Pattaya Police Station stated that the escape exposed lapses in interrogation and guarding procedures. An internal security review will be launched immediately, the interrogation room windows will be repaired, the second-floor barriers reinforced, and more personnel will be trained and deployed to prevent similar incidents from recurring.