PATTAYA - A 35-year-old American man was in critical condition after stabbing himself repeatedly on a median on Pattaya Road, after witnesses saw him reciting from a religious text while holding a knife to his throat.
The incident occurred at about 5pm on Thursday in North Pattaya. Eyewitnesses said the man was sitting cross-legged and mumbling from a book resembling scripture before suddenly plunging a 10cm knife into his neck and chest.
When police and a rescue team reached the scene, they tried to calm him. The man violently resisted, breaking free and ran bloodied across the road before collapsing.
Rescuers restrained and sedated the man, who was muttering incoherently as he was rushed to hospital. He remains in critical condition, in a coma.
At the scene, police found a bag containing novels and personal documents.
While the motive remains unclear, investigators suspect them man was in extreme psychological distress, possibly influenced by the books he was reading.
