The Royal Thai Police are to seek help from Interpol to find two Chinese men who allegedly kidnapped a female Chinese tourist and forced her to pay them a 500,000 baht ransom in return for her released.

The suspects, identified as Tang Xi-wei and Xu-wei, have already left Thailand.

Pol Maj-Gen Noppasilp Poonsawat, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said today (Saturday) that the men rented two rooms at a condominium in the Rama 9 area on April 16^th. The 25-year-old victim lived in the same condominium building.

One of the men befriended the victim and, on April 17^th, persuaded her into his room and detained her.

Noppasilp said the two men tied the victim to a chair, assaulted her and forced her to transfer 500,000 baht into their bank account. The following day, Tang Xi-wei took a taxi to Suvarnabhumi airport and flew to Phnom Penh, using a fake passport.

The other suspect, Xu-wei, rode a motorcycle to a rented house in the Sutthisan area, he said, adding that he might have also left Thailand.

Tang Xi-wei is recorded having come to Thailand three times since 2014, while the other man has entered Thailand 12 times since 2015 as a tourist.

The deputy commissioner noted that, in the past few months, there have been several kidnappings in Thailand involving Chinese, both the perpetrators and victims. He admitted that Thai police are currently unable to check the criminal records of the Chinese suspects, because Interpol red notices have not been issued yet.