Bangkok man electrocuted to death charging his phone

A young Thai man was found dead in his room in Bangkok this morning clutching a phone on charge. Police say he was electrocuted to death.

At 8am, officers at Rat Burana Police Station were informed of a death in a rented room in the Bang Mod subdistrict, Thung Khru district.

Police, doctors from Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital, and rescue workers from the Por Tek Thung Foundation travelled to the scene to investigate.

In the second of ten rooms in the two-storey cement building, police found the body of 28 year old Wanchai (surname reserved), a welder, lying on his side. Blood was dripping from his mouth and his right hand was burned, said police.

In his right hand, Wanchai was clutching a mobile phone plugged into a charger. The phone charger was plugged into an extension cable plugged into the wall.

Police found that the extension cable’s plug was broken and some of the metal parts were missing. Wanchai had doctored the plug by pushing the wire through and plugged it directly into the main socket of the house’s electricity supply.

Police believe the faulty extension cable caused a short circuit and electrocuted Wanchai.

Wanchai’s 50 year old brother Somkuan (surname reserved) told police that when he returned from work yesterday at 8pm, he knocked on the door of his brother’s room but there was no response.

Assuming he was not in, Somkuan went out to eat. After he ate, Somkuan returned to work and returned home at 2am. He knocked again for Wanchai but there was no answer.

Somkuan tried one more time at 6am but Wanchai didn’t answer the door, so he decided to force the door open to find his brother dead on the bed.

Wanchai’s body will be sent for a thorough autopsy at the Institute of Forensic Medicine to formally determine his cause of death.