Pattaya, Thailand-
The Pattaya Police, in conjunction with rescue services, press including The Pattaya News, local hospitals and nightclub security staff held a full training drill yesterday night to simulate a large scale nightclub and hospital brawl and response to such a situation.
Police Lt. Col. Nitus Waen, Deputy Director General of Pattaya Police Station, organized the drill out of concern of the upcoming “high season” which will see events in Pattaya nearly every single weekend that is expected to bring thousands of domestic tourists and young adults to the Pattaya area. These events include large scale events like the music festival, the New Year countdown, the fireworks festival, EDM festivals, food festivals and more. Many of these events are traditionally very popular with young Thai’s who also tend to consume large amounts of alcohol and have before had incidents of fights and brawls.
The exercise comes on the tail of several public brawls in other parts of Thailand where in most cases a large group of young adults got into an altercation at a nightclub or pub where some members of one faction were injured. The members of the other group then proceeded to go to the hospital and cause further chaos such as the story we covered below:
The training exercise was held at the YES nightclub on Chaloem Phra Kiat Sai 3 Road in Pattaya who volunteered to participate in the event and help train their own security staff. Volunteers and actors played the youth involved in the brawl. The exercise was a “live exercise” which meant that the nightclub simulated being open. Officers and medical staff responding to the exercise were not told of the exact situation or where it would take place, only that they were responding to a training exercise and would be graded on their performance.
The exercise initially consisted of two large groups of youth who got into a brawl at the nightclub with security separating the two. Several actors, for the purpose of the drill, pretended to be wounded during the initial altercation and had to be taken to Pattaya hospital for medical assistance.
Training officers and medical staff utilized several methods in the exercise to control the situation, including locking down the emergency room where the patients were, a police escort following the ambulances to the hospital, police officers stationed outside the hospital and the emergency room entrance and officers stationed near the hospital to catch any offenders who attempted to escape.
Lt. Col. Nitat Waenpradab, of the Pattaya Police Station stated that the responding officers, security guards, medical staff and doctors did an excellent job in the rehearsal. He said that the plan would be reviewed with relevant agencies over the next several weeks in advance of major planned events to avoid any problems. He also commended the actors involved in the drill. You can watch the video of the drill below:
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