At nightfall in a suburb of Munich on June 10, two German teens, age 13 and 14, fired shots at Thai King Vajiralongkorn and his entourage with an air pistol. The king and his bodyguards were riding bicycles when the teenagers, hidden in overgrown bushes, targeted them with plastic pellets. To date, there is no report of the king being injured in the attack.
The Bavarian state prosecutor in Landshut questioned the 14-year-old boy about a possible criminal assault against Thailand's head of state. Meanwhile, the 13-year-old boy was set free as he is below the age of criminal responsibility. Vajiralongkorn never pressed charges. In fact, the police was only informed of the attack an hour later via a diplomatic channel.
Vajiralongkorn has lived a colorful, and indeed scandalous, life. He has become an object of great interest among Bavarian residents. In May, the king made sensational headlines in the German tabloid Bild for appearing in public in his skimpy tank top barely covering a massive, fake yakuza-style tattoo. He was spotted with one of his mistresses, Koi, who also sported a similar outfit replete with an artificial tattoo. But the air pistol incident stirred concern among royal watchers in Thailand about the safety of the king and his long-term vacation in Germany.
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