Police arrest two men in their 20s — one Russian, one Kyrgyz — at the site
South Korean police are investigating a brawl that is believed to have involved some 10 foreign nationals at a park in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, late Saturday night, authorities said Monday.
The Pyeongtaek Police Station said it received a report at around 11:30 p.m. Saturday that “a group of foreigners were engaged in a brawl.”
Video footage taken by a nearby member of Korea Citizens on Patrol, a neighborhood watch group voluntarily organized by local residents, shows several people surrounding a crouching man, kicking him and striking him with clubs.
Members of the neighborhood watch blew whistles to disperse the group, but they later reconvened at another location and continued fighting.
“They had both metal and wooden bats. There were a few broken wooden clubs scattered around the site,” Kim Seol-hee, a member of the neighborhood watch, told local broadcaster YTN.
Police arrived at the scene and arrested two men in their 20s — one Russian and one Kyrgyz national — on suspicion of violating the Act on Punishment of Violent Acts. Others involved in the fight fled the scene in vehicles.
A preliminary investigation found that both arrested men were in Korea on student visas. They were hospitalized with bone fractures, and have told police they were assaulted without provocation.
Police also recovered weapons from the scene, including wooden clubs fitted with nails, and found additional bats inside vehicles belonging to the two arrested men.
Police believe at least 10 foreign nationals were involved in the brawl and are searching for the other suspects.
seungku99@heraldcorp.com