04Aug GTA4 Banned in Thailand
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Copies of the popular Grand Theft Auto 4 game are being taken off the shelves after an 18 year old teenager kills a cab driver.
The student is being accused of stabbing the cab driver to death trying to recreate a scene from the video game.
New Era Interactive Media, the biggest video game publisher in Thailand has told retailers to take the game off the shelves.
Thai newspapers claim that the teenager was arrested while trying to steer a cab backwards out of a Bangkok street with the driver still in the back seat.
Police claim the teenage confessed to stealing the taxi and that he killed the driver after he tryed to fight back. The 18 year old could face the death penalty if found guilty.
Bangkok police Captain Veerarit Pipatanasak said: “He wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game.
“He wanted money to play the game. His parents, who work as civil servants, did not have enough money to give him.”
Thailand’s Culture Ministry has recently been pushing for tougher regulation of games like Grand Theft Auto.
It wants stricter age ratings and restrictions on the hours that people can play games in arcades.
Ladda Thangsupachai, director of the ministry’s Cultural Surveillance Centre, said: “This time-bomb has already exploded and the situation could get worse. Today it is a cab driver, but tomorrow it could be a video game shop owner.”
