POLICE ARE hunting for a Chinese man whose gang is suspected of involvement in a dramatic gun-shop robbery attempt in Bangkok yesterday, which left one of his gang members dead while three others were captured.

An informed source said one of the detained suspects had disclosed that his gang wanted to get firearms for use in either Phuket or Chiang Mai.

The source, however, did not specify what kinds of activities the gang would have engaged in.

“The ongoing investigation has not found any link to terrorism to date,” the source said.

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National police Commissioner General Chakthip Chaijinda himself interrogated one of the suspects, Li Kunpeng, via an interpreter. The interrogation lasted more than one hour.

Chakthip said Li claimed he did not know what his gang leader, Zheng Yang – who was not part of the robbery attempt – had planned to do with the firearms. Zheng’s whereabouts were not known. Li said he had only followed orders to rob the gun shop, Inter Arms, in Bangkok’s Wang Burapha area yesterday morning.

“The gang members walked in with their weapons just 10 minutes after the shop opened,” Metropolitan Police Bureau acting chief Pol Lt-General Sanit Mahathavorn said.

Kanthira Lim-upatham, the 38-year-old shop owner, said the intruders knifed her husband and her worker for trying to resist.

“I fled the scene and locked myself inside a bathroom,” she said.

She said the intruders could not get any gun from her shop because the weapons had not yet been put on display at the time they arrived. Kanthira said after spending much time in the shop and being unable to break open the safety cabinet that stored the fire arms, all four intruders left.

Pol Captain Tawatchai Piew-ong, a deputy inspector of Plabplachai 2 Police Station and a former member of a commando unit, said he was shopping nearby when he heard a loud commotion. “I rushed out of a shop and saw four robbers about to flee the scene on two motorcycles,” he said. Tawatchai said one of the robbers pointed a gun at him, prompting him to fire back. A closer check later revealed that the robbers were armed with BB guns. “I shot twice and two robbers fell down. Two others quickly fled,” he said, “So, I arrested the injured ones.”

Another policeman, who runs a gun shop nearby, helped arrest the two other gang members.

Three of the robbers were shot. They were Ma Geng, Wu Xingjun and Sun Junwei. Wu was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital. Li was unharmed. He fled into a nearby soi without any injuries. More police arrived at the scene. After police sealed off the area, they nabbed Li inside a house on Sirichai Soi 1, about an hour later.

Chakthip said the four gang members had entered Thailand for the first time on February 27. “But the suspected gang leader has travelled in and out of Thailand several times,” he said. An informed source said police did not find any illegal item in the rooms rented by the Chinese.

“But a map of Chiang Mai was found in one of the rooms,” it said.

Metropolitan Police chief Sanit yesterday declined to identify the provinces where the perpetrators had planned to use the guns, saying he was concerned tourism there might be affected.

“But I can confirm this case has nothing to do with terrorism,” he said, adding the Chinese Embassy has informed him the men had no history of terrorism or criminal records in China. Police would ask Interpol if they were on the wanted list.

National Security Council secretary-general General Thawip Netniyom yesterday also maintained that the foreign men had no connection with any terrorist group.

He said they were ordinary criminals, adding gun shop robbery occurred more often in Europe and the United States.

Thitithorn Buppharummanee, president of the Gun Traders Association in Thailand, said there are more than 60 gun shops in the Burapha area and most of them have been selling guns for over 60 years.

Thitithorn said this was the first time there had been an attempt to rob guns from one of the gun shops.