Bangkok News
Bangkok news, politics, business, crime, and nightlife—stay updated with breaking stories, events, and expat updates from Thailand’s capital. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Bangkok news source.
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Sponsored 5 ways retirees in Thailand lose money (and how to stop it)
Retiring in Thailand can be affordable and enjoyable, but many retirees lose money due to common mistakes. High living costs, scams, and unexpected expenses can quickly drain savings. There are five ways that retirees in Thailand can lose money and...
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710 people caught violating curfew in one night, most in Phuket
The Royal Thai Police Operations Centre has revealed that there were 710 arrests made on Thursday night for violators of the national curfew. Officials searched 27,011 individuals and 20,568 vehicles with a final arrest number of 710, on last Thursday night alone. The arrests consisted of… 612 suspects left their homes during the curfew with no valid reasoning, out of…
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Ex-deputy commerce minister and 5 accomplices face 10 charges in murder trial
In a case which has shocked the nation, former deputy commerce minister, MP and police lieutenant Banyin Tangpakorn and 5 accomplices, accused of involvement in the murder of a senior Bangkok judge’s brother, have been slapped with 10 separate charges. The Crime Suppression Division commander Jiraphop Phuridet says the accused are charged with: premeditated murder; detention; detention causing death; acting…
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77 year old woman falls to her death in Bangkok
An elderly woman fell to her death from a tenth floor condominium in Bangkok’s Bang Khen district yesterday morning, after a worried relative took her in to keep her safe from Covid-19. Police say 77 year old Surinee Dokkaew was found dead at about 6am on the ground at the base of the 15 storey building on Chaeng Wattana Road.…
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Bangkok immigration police nab Chinese loan sharks
Bangkok immigration police have arrested 5 organisers and 73 employees at a building in Chom Thong district today, where alleged Chinese loan sharks were running an illegal finance firm. The company, “Thai Luck Trade” extended loans at interest rates far higher than the limit under Thai law. The company was registered as a merchant dealing in glasses, watches and cameras…
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Bangkok’s Chatuchak weekend market is reopening
Chatuchak, Jatujak, JJ, whatever you choose to call it, Bangkok’s legendary weekend market is reopening tomorrow. The massive indoor/outdoor market, popular with both Thai and foreign tourists, will reopen this weekend after weeks of being shuttered, but visitors will be required to observe physical distancing and wear face masks…. you know the drill. Walaya Wattanarat, deputy permanent secretary of the…
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Some taxis equipped with ‘barriers’ to protect against coronavirus transmission
Some taxis are being converted to be coronavirus-proof, well that’s the intention. A barrier designed by Royal Thai Air Force personnel, to protect people using taxis and keep drivers in business, has been rolled out. With possible close contact to many different people, taxi drivers are at risk of catching the virus. In February, a taxi driver was the first human-to-human virus transmission in…
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Beware overcrowding and virus transmission – PM
Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha says packed crowds in public spaces are a concern when it comes to the transmission of the Covid-19 virus. The Bangkok Posts reports that Dr. Taweesilp Visanuyothin, the spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, says the PM wants to see more measures put in place to reduce overcrowding. Just a few days ago, a…
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Gamblers arrested, police investigated for ‘negligence’ in Bang Chan
Not a lockdown, not a global pandemic, not a series of recent arrests will slow down the urge for some gamblers to gamble. Now officials from the Department of Provincial Administration in Bang Chan, north-east of Bangkok’s city centre, have raided more illegal casinos with some senior police in the area being side-lined to inactive posts. There were recent raids…
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Repatriation flight from Germany arrives in Bangkok
Last night 110 Thai people, living abroad and having been affected by the Covid-19 travel restrictions and flight bans, arrived from Frankfurt, Germany on a specially-chartered Lufthansa flight. The flight number LH772 arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport where all the passengers passed initial screening with no high fevers detected and medical paperwork intact. Thai citizens, who weren’t in Frankfurt, had to make…
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20,000 military-grade masks are on the way to help battle Covid-19
The Thai Royal Army has approved the production of military and medical protective masks, a total of 20,000 pieces valued at 600 million baht, to help the nation save over 500 million baht on imported N95 masks. Funding has come from government agencies and the private sector, hoping to help 500 medical personnel in need in the southern border provinces…
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Thousands of Thais to return by the end of May
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration has announced that all Thai nationals, stranded abroad during the peak of the outbreak, will be repatriated. The government is preparing to welcome around 7,000 returnees who will arrive by the end of the month. Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the CCSA says that the centre is working closely with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs…
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Speeding ambulance ejects patient on stretcher into Bangkok traffic – VIDEO
A video that captured the moment a female patient was catapulted from an ambulance into busy city traffic has now been viewed over a million times. The Thai Examiner reports that the incident occurred as the ambulance, lights flashing, was speeding through Bangkok traffic, transporting the woman to hospital. As the driver accelerated along Pracha Uthit Road in the capital’s…
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Suspect in fatal Bangkok shooting absconds with family
A man was shot dead in a fight between two neighbours yesterday in Bangkok’s Bang Khen district, apparently over excessive noise, and the alleged killer has reportedly fled with his family. Police were alerted to a shooting incident at a house on Ruammit Pattana Road at 7pm. At the scene they found the body of 37 year old Phatcharaphol Phomaneesak…
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2 Chinese nabbed for peddling hemp oil, facemasks
A pair of Chinese nationals have been arrested in Bangkok for selling toys, hand gel, thermometers and hemp oil worth millions of baht. Cyberpolice yesterday said the suspects, named only as “Lee” and “Jan”, were arrested at a commercial building in Bangkok’s Bang Khunthian district. Police seized vast numbers of masks, body temperature scanners and sex toys as well as…
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Bangkok authorities under fire for over-zealous tree pruning
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has come in for some flak after some over-enthusiastic pruning of the city’s trees. Some of the city’s green shade was cut back to bare, ugly stumps. A report in the Bangkok Post says trees along Witthayu Road, near the city’s famed Lumpini Park, have been chopped down to their lower trucks. A similar fate has…
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Online video platform TikTok assessing live streaming in Thailand
TikTok, the most downloaded app in the world for 2 years running and the world’s leading short-video platform, has announced a trial of its first live streaming series in Thailand as part of its push to develop platform experiences for users around the world. TikTok’s first live streaming in Thailand was hosted by Vuthithorn “Woody” Milintachinda, a celebrity and influencer,…
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American creates bomb scare at Bangkok’s US Embassy
This morning at 8:3oam officers at Bangkok’s Lumphini Police Station were notified of a suspicious western man who placed a suspicious box in front of the US embassy. A bomb disposal team was sent to the scene but in the box there was only a Muay Thai doll, some clothes, A3 batteries, papers and a plastic bottle was found nearby.…
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The China Bounce – are the Chinese packing their bags ready to come back to Thailand?
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com The results of a comprehensive new survey of consumers in Mainland China’s first tier cities concludes that 53% of respondents would like to travel internationally sometime this year. Citing the opportunity, the most popular months for trips abroad for the remainder of the year are, specifically, August, October and December. Thailand is one of the…
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Samut Prakarn shooting leads to one fatality
Last night at around 6pm, an army private is alleged to have shot and killed his father in law, in Samut Prakarn province (South of Bangkok). After police officers from Bangmeuang Station were informed of the multiple gunshots at a house in Sub Yang Yein housing estate in Mueang district, they quickly set up a blockade surrounding the area. The…
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Monk defrocked and arrested after allegedly shooting man in the testicles
A monk at Wat Mongkhol Nimit in Samut Prakan, just south of Bangkok, has been defrocked and arrested for shooting another man who was living at the same temple. Police arrested 46 year old Phra Apiram Ruengthip at his living quarters on Friday evening. The former monk claims he only shot in self-defense. Police say they seized an unregistered handgun…
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Man beats 4 year old son to death in Bangkok
Yesterday, just after midnight a man was charged with murder after striking and killing his 4 year old while high on drugs. Local police authorities had received a call that a boy had been fatally injured in an apartment in Soi Petchkasem, Phasi charoen district in Bangkok. When police arrived at the apartment, the door was locked so officers had to…
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Phone booths get new lease on life as ‘Covid boxes’
Move over Clark Kent, there’s a new Superhero in town in need of your dressing room. The Digital Economy and Society Ministry is converting TOT phone booths into Covid-19 testing kiosks to help lower the infection risk faced by healthcare workers due to the shortage of personal protective equipment. At a cost of less than 1,000 baht to repurpose, selected…
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Police arrest 3 as they crack down on fake mask and gel network
Provincial Police Region 1 officers have arrested 3 people who have been charged with selling a large quantity of fake hand gel dispensers and face masks. The arrests were made in Samut Prakan (south of Bangkok), Pathum Thani (north of Bangkok) and Bangkok. The provincial police believe that all 3 suspects are part of a bigger network of distributors and…
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Police nab another suspect in notorious Forex-3D Ponzi scheme
Police in Bangkok have arrested yet another suspect in the infamous Forex-3D Ponzi scheme which duped thousands with false promises of high returns and resulted in losses of tens of billions of baht. Department of Special Investigation officials have now arrested 30 year old Sitthanat Pho-ngern on a warrant issued by the Criminal Court. He’s charged with luring people to…
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Bank robber comes in from the rain, makes off with 106,000 baht
Staff at the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives in Prawet district of southeastern Bangkok got a surprise this week when a lone armed robber came in off the street, out of the torrential rain, and stole 106,000 baht. Brandishing a pistol, the man, caught on security cameras, wore a sky blue cap, a facemask, black shirt, jeans and trainers.…
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A golden moment for Thailand’s gold sellers
The streets of Bangkok’s Chinatown today have been paved with gold… sellers. Today, dozens of Bangkok citizens lined up outside Yaowarat Road gold shops, creating chaos as they tried to sell off their gold ornaments and gold bars after the price gold rose by 550 baht per baht of gold (15.244 grams.) It is reported that this is the highest…
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The post-Covid-19 era: Radical changes in Bangkok’s property market
Property consultants CBRE have come up with their own evaluation of the current Bangkok office market, already getting pounded by regional trends and a high baht, now suffering another challenge – the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak. They report that this situation will “create another split in our historical timeline – pre and post Covid-19” in Thailand. “At present, people are talking…
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Woman convicted for 2005 stabbings, allegedly kills 5 year old
A mental patient who served prison time for the 2005 stabbings of 4 girls in Bangkok has turned herself in to police after allegedly stabbing a 5 year old girl to death. 50 year old Ms. Jitrlada Tantiwanitchasuk gave herself up to police in Nakhon Pathom province otside Bangkok yesterday. The 5 year old victim was pronounced dead on arrival…
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Airports of Thailand approves Don Mueang expansion
Yesterday, the Airports of Thailand (AoT) board gave tacit approval of a master plan for the third-phase development of Don Mueang International airport costing an estimated of 39 billion baht. The expansion arrangements includes, increase of the airport’s capacity to 40 million passengers a year (currently 30 million a year), a 3.4 kilometre automated people mover system (APM), new car…
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Tuk-tuk driver assaults Grab driver in Bangkok
Another Thai tuk tuk driver has been caught out trying to defend his ‘turf’. Tuk Tuk driver Ek has been charged with assaulting a grab car driver after dropping off passengers in front of a mall on Ratchadapisek Road, Bangkok. After the incident went viral online, Police Colonel Purit Jintranan invited both drivers for a talking at the Huai Khwang…
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