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Thai suspect in Swedish tourist murder surrenders
March 19, 2008 - 2:50PM

A Thai man suspected of killing a Swedish tourist on the southern resort island of Phuket has surrendered to police after a three-day manhunt, police said today.

Hanna Charlotta Backlund, 27, was found stabbed to death on Saturday near her bungalow on Mai Khao beach in northern Phuket where she had gone for a walk.

Police Lieutenant General Tani Twidsi told Reuters Akaradech Tangae, a 31-year-old labourer who surrendered to police yesterday, said he had tried to rape Backlund, but she resisted and he stabbed her to death.

Akaradech fled to neighbouring Burma but returned after police assured his relatives that a murder charge would not carry the death penalty.

"He is a 'peeping tom'. He loves to bring friends to this remote and quiet beach to look at naked tourists swimming or sunbathing," Tani said.

Phuket, one of the six southern provinces hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which killed 5395 people in Thailand, is a popular destination for Western tourists fleeing cold winters.

Reuters