Police arrested a rubber plantation owner in Surat Thani today (Monday) after he allegedly shot dead his neighbour and three Myanmar workers at a plantation in Sawee district of Thailand’s southern province of Chumphon at the weekend and fled in the victim’s pickup truck.

A dog was also found shot dead not far from the four victims, some of whom were burned, according to Nasak sub-district police.

Police said that the suspect, identified as “Praphan”, was in conflict with his neighbour, also a rubber plantation owner, having accused his neighbour and three Myanmar workers of stealing latex from his plantation.

About 50 Surat Thani and Chumphon police officers combed a forest this morning in Ban Han Yang in Surat Thani, where the suspect was believed to have been hiding, after they detected the signal of his smart phone. He was apprehended.

On Saturday, police found a pickup truck in a roadside ditch in Kanchanadit district of Surat Thani. The vehicle was traced to the one reported to have been stolen from the murder victim in Chumphon.

It is reported that, after the suspect accidentally drove the car into the ditch, several passers-by rushed to his rescue, but he rejected their offers of help, grabbed a shotgun from the car and fled.