Ae (not his real name), 17, and Bee (not his real name), 15, claimed the victim exchanged verbal abuse with them so they shot him, though they didn’t know or have a conflict with the boy before, acting metropolitan police commissioner Lt-General Sanit Mahathaworn told a press conference. The duo have been charged with murder and carrying a gun to a public place without a sound reason.

Sanit said Ae confessed to shooting the victim in the head with a pen gun – which he bought for Bt800 from a construction worker and disposed it of after the shooting – while Bee and another friend were riding on the same motorcycle.

Police are looking for the Ae and Bee’s other friends, as they were travelling as a seven-strong group on two motorcycles when they ran into the victim, who was riding home with a friend on a motorcycle.

At 5am yesterday, a separate shooting attack occurred in Bangkok’s Wang Thong Lang district, resulting in three casualties. Three teenagers riding on two motorcycles – identified as Thanawin Toonpirom, 18, Warawuth Palakawong na Ayudhaya, 18, and Warakorn Palakawong na Ayudhaya, 15 – were shot by two men on another motorcycle in Soi Lat Phrao 87 (Yaek 7). Thanawin died at Lat Phrao Hospital.