The Bangkok Post reports today that:
A foreign woman artist, Elizabeth Briel, reported on Twitter on Friday that she and her husband had acid sprayed at their faces at the Asoke skytrain station last night.
She said the acid was directed at them from the stairway leading to the station near Robinson shopping mall.
Mrs Briel said her husband’s eyes were damaged but would be okay, while she has a burnt scalp.
They were treated at Bumrungrad hospital.
The hospital said this is the third case they have seen lately.
Her initial tweets are here and here.
In a blog post today, Briel elaborates:
As we passed the Asoke Skytrain exit near Robinson, we were showered with clear liquid. It was too heavy to be from a bat or a bird, too brief to be rain. Where had it come from? The trees above my head? The stairs next to us, or the walkway beyond to Nana?
I thought someone had peed down on us from the steps as a practical joke, and scanned them, but they were empty. Then Roy called out: “My eyes – they’re burning – they’re fucked – get some water.” As if in response, my scalp began to burn. Could a Skytrain cleaner have dumped extra chemicals onto us? I looked up – no cleaning buckets or employees in sight. Just the usual assortment of Skytrain passengers: middle-class Thais and foreigners. My eyes darted from Roy – crouched over, his hand over his eyes – to look for someone, anyone, who might have done this. The left side of my face and neck had been splashed by whatever-it-was, and the pain inflamed my panic.
This was no accident.
A doctor at Bumrungrad Hospital, Briel says, told them the liquid was “‘acid or industrial cleaning fluid that caused the burns.’”
There’s no further information from Briel — via the doctor — about where the other reported incidents took place, or who might have fallen victim.
