A group of underage Italian students on a school educational trip caused a disturbance on Bangkok’s BTS Skytrain by speaking loudly, shouting, using rude language, and making obscene gestures including raising the middle finger. A Thai woman politely asked them to lower their voices, warning that shouting is not allowed, which led to a verbal altercation and aggressive responses from the students [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
One student was caught on a viral video sarcastically saying, "Sorry that we brought money to your country," while making offensive gestures. This phrase sparked widespread criticism among Thai social media users [4, 5, 6, 7].
On July 25, the Italian Embassy in Bangkok issued a trilingual statement expressing deep regret and condemning the teenagers’ behaviour. The embassy said the actions did not represent the Italian people or their values of respect and friendship. The statement said, "The Embassy of Italy in Bangkok expresses its deep regret over the incident and strongly condemns the inappropriate behaviour of a group of Italian underage tourists participating in a school educational trip, as shown in a video circulated on social media" [1, 2, 3, 8, 4, 5, 6, 7].
The embassy also released a 95-second video showing four student representatives apologizing directly to the Thai public, admitting hesitation to respond sooner out of anxiety, and asking for forgiveness. One student said, "We apologise to you, to all Thai people and to your family" [1, 9, 8, 4, 5, 6, 7].
The operator of the educational trip also apologized, stating the behaviour violated the organisation’s core values [1, 2, 3, 8].
On the same day, five students and their supervisor met the Thai woman involved, known as Sugus, at Samrae Metropolitan Police Station. They apologized in person and paid fines—1,000 baht each for insulting another person and an additional 2,000 baht fine for the student who made the obscene gesture. Sugus asked, "Are you apologising to me?" during the meeting [9, 10].
The parties agreed not to pursue further legal actions and to delete photos and videos of the incident from their phones. Sugus pledged to remove photos of the group from social media [9, 10].
The students are scheduled to return to Italy soon and will receive school counselling to promote respect for other cultures in the future [4, 5, 6, 7].
