This is the horrifying moment a British hero was stabbed in front of his wife while trying to break up a fight after a gang attacked another tourist in Thailand.
Charlie Faulkner was walking to a 7-11 store with his wife Kate in the early hours of Friday morning when he claimed to have seen several local men attacking a foreigner in Phuket.
Portsmouth’s heroic husband stepped in to intervene but was allegedly beaten and stabbed by the thugs, who plunged a knife into the left side of his abdomen.
Shocking CCTV footage captured the attack in which Kate was also allegedly beaten during the brawl on the city’s famous red light party strip, Bangla Road.
The video shows at least two men throwing punches in what appears to be a random attack on a tourist holding shopping bags.
Horror footage captured the moment a pair of thugs (left) began beating a tourist holding shopping bags on the famous Bangla Road in Phuket, Thailand.
Charlie (pictured right) could be seen wearing a black t-shirt, shorts and white sneakers before attempting to mediate the fight.
Charlie, from Portsmouth, was stabbed after intervening in the brawl
The victim appears surprised and raises his arms to try to defend himself before one of the thugs grabs a chair and throws it towards the terrified tourist.
He is then pushed into an alley where footage shows the fight getting out of control when he is cornered by three thugs.
Charlie, seen in the video wearing a black shirt, black shorts and white sneakers, stood at the entrance of the alley as the Thai natives and foreigners arrived on the street.
He walked towards the group and claimed that he had tried to mediate, but was injured when the thugs turned their fury on him.
A convenience store employee said Charlie later entered the store and collapsed in front of the counter bleeding.
He was reportedly coughing up blood and unable to speak.
After removing his shirt, they found a small puncture wound, believed to have come from a sharp metal object, on his left ribcage and he was also reported to have been hit on the head with a glass bottle.
The Briton was rushed to Patong hospital for treatment.
Charlie’s shocked girlfriend said: “We had no idea who those men were.” We had never met them before. We just got caught up in the incident.
Charlie (pictured, top left) was seen leaving the alley after the other tourist was cornered by thugs.
The Briton was seen lying on the floor of a store bleeding after being stabbed in the left side of the abdomen.
Charlie, pictured with his wife Kate, who was also allegedly hit when her husband tried to stop the Bangla Road fight.
Police Colonel Chalermchai Hernsawat, superintendent of Patong police station, said police had identified the suspects and were tracking them.
Patong police said in a police report on May 19 that three of the Thais, who were not identified, had been arrested.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Chanan Mekchai from Patong Police Station said emergency services received a report at 4.40am.
He said: ‘According to security footage, at 4.32am, a foreigner wearing a white shirt and shorts got into a fistfight with a group of Thai men on Soi Bangla.
“The altercation escalated and they pushed into a small alley, Soi Lao, before taking the fight to the roadside, where they were spotted by the British man.”
The incident is among the latest cases of violence against British tourists and expatriates in Thailand, raising concerns about the safety of visitors to the Southeast Asian country.
British mother Ayesha Jane Cox, 37, was knocked out with a single punch by security guard Mohammad Ayan, 27, whom she scolded for taking a nap at work in Bangkok in 2021.
An arrest warrant was issued for the guard last September, and Ayesha and her family asked police to capture him. She said her attack had left her with a “permanently damaged” face.
On February 22, British tourist Joseph Abadi-Johns, 23, was stabbed in a mass brawl in Phuket with Thai transgender sex workers, whom he and his friends had reportedly hired but refused to pay.
In August 2023, tourist Ian Thomas, 60, and his son Gregory, 37, were attacked by bouncers who were ejecting them from the Matador bar on Pattaya’s red Soi Buakhao street.
While in 2016, British couple Lewis and Rosemary Owen, aged 68 and 65, were visiting Hua Hin with their son John, 43, when they were brutally beaten by several drunk Thai men “for spilling their beer”.
The cruel attack left the family unconscious and Rosemary suffered brain swelling.
The couple, who regularly visited Thailand, had promised never to return to Thailand after the attack. His attackers were sentenced to four years in prison, commuted to two after they allegedly confessed.
