Thai man charged with manslaughter after 'hacking British tourist to death'

A British tourist in Thailand was hacked to death with a scythe by a furious neighbour - allegedly for playing music loudly into the early hours of the morning.

Marcus John Evans, 49, from Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset started drinking on Friday afternoon with his girlfriend and pal Shaun Kevin Dagnan, from Nuneaton at their rented rooms in Kanchanaburi province.

The pair carried 'talking loudly and playing music' from a Bluetooth speaker until well past midnight. However, furious Thai neighbour Prasut Thipthep, 23, allegedly confronted them before launching a frenzied attacked with a scythe shortly after 3am.

Residents heard shouting before finding the body of Marcus - which was almost decapitated - while Shaun was severely injured. He was taken to hospital.

Officers arrived and Prasut was arrested later that morning hiding in a nearby house. He is said to have been 'trembling and covered in blood'.

Speaking in the video, Marcus's friend, Adria Licci, 59, from Italy, who also lived in the resort, said that Marcus had arrived on December 17 to visit his Thai girlfriend.

He said: 'I was friends with the man who died and the one who was injured. They also knew the attacker and they had drinks with him before and had given him cigarettes. They used to joke with him a lot.

'I've never seen the three of them arguing before until last night when I heard them all shouting at about 3am.

'I came out of the room to see and found the wounded man and dead man lying on the ground in a pool of blood.

'We think that the issue was caused by the guys playing loud music, but this should have been discussed and solved. It shouldn't have to be this violent.'

Police Colonel Somkiart Chomchai from the Muang district police said the alleged murder had been arrested at 8:50am and taken into custody. He is due to be interviewed on Sunday and also have psychiatric assessments.

The policeman said: 'At the scene there was a large number of blood marks on the ground. On the marble table were beer bottles and a Bluetooth speaker.

'We interrogated neighbours nearby the scene and everybody said that the foreigners had been playing music loudly, which made the attacker angry.

'We have to gather more information on the incident to find whether the attacker was suffering from a mental illness.'

Police said that the British Embassy in Bangkok had been informed of the death.