Christmas Party in Thailand Ends in Brawl Involving Bottle Throwing, Gunshots and Homemade Hand Grenades

The Christmas party for AutoAlliance Thailand really had it all: Bottle throwing, gun shots and homemade hand grenades. It all started peacefully enough; the company's 4,000 person staff gathered at a restaurant in Chonburi, roughly 60 miles south of Bangkok, for a night full of holiday cheer and prizes.

But, as tends to happen in such situations, people started hitting the booze. "They were eating and many people were drunk," said a police officer who responded to the scene.

When it was time to hand out prizes, a fight broke out, and the situation quickly escalated. "Things got out of hand when some men threw bottles at each other," the same officer said, which sounds about right.

Eventually, bottle and glass tossing turned into gun fight of sorts, as multiple shots were reportedly fired. At one point, a craft-enthusiastic threw a homemade grenade into the mix. Food throwing was also apparently rampant, as over 400 tables of catering were destroyed in the melee.

For reasons that remain unclear, only 10 police officers were assigned to the party and, because 10 is significantly less than 4,000, the officers were unable to enter the restaurant and were instead forced to help fleeing partygoers outside.

All told, 30 attendees were injured, including one person who was in critical condition (reportedly from the homemade grenade).

Sounds crazy, right? Not for the jaded police officer: "We have incidents like this every year."

[Image via Shutterstock]