News
Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond. The Thaiger delivers the latest national news that matters.
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Hollywood-style bar brawl in Patong
PHUKET: A bar in Patong was wrecked this morning when a vicious fight broke out between two gangs at 3am.The men, numbering at least ten, were all young and muscular and smashed wooden chairs and bottles over each other in the fight on Soi Happy off Rat-U-Thit 200 Pii Road, said Phuket Immigration Volunteer Mr Robin Lee.Three police officers, including…
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UPDATE: Phuket tuk-tuk assault case
PHUKET: A Patong tuk-tuk driver charged with assault for allegedly beating a Canadian tourist has been granted bail. Tassanarit Damthong, 30, handed himself in at Kathu Police Station at 3pm on Tuesday. He was arrested and charged with the assault of Canadian tourist Ivan Bob Anwar, 51. Mr Anwar claimed he was punched five times after refusing to pay 150…
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Mystery hanging in Rawai woods
PHUKET: The body of a man presumed to be of European descent was discovered hanging from a tree in a secluded area of Rawai yesterday afternoon.Police were unable to identify the deceased but said he was Caucasian, about 180cm tall and estimated to be in his 40s.He had been dead for about eight hours before his body was found, police said.A local…
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Fabio: Grazie Mille Phuket
KAMALA, PHUKET: Italian tourist Fabio Fanzani was reunited with his lost wallet today after an appeal was launched on this website yesterday. Kamala Police had been trying in vain to contact the owner of the wallet after it was found by a Thai tourist, Ms Khanungnit Kwanyao, at Surin Beach and handed over to authorities over a week ago. When…
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British man dies in Phuket
KOH KAEW: A 65-year-old Englishman was found dead in his rental home near the Boat Lagoon yesterday afternoon. The deceased, Barry Ronald Cutler, was found at about 4pm, naked and lying on a staircase landing in his rented home in Phuket Inter Villa residential estate on Soi Bangkoo 1. Mr Cutler rented the house in October and lived alone. A…
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Disabled to help Phuket City Police with CCTV monitoring
PHUKET: Phuket City Police are moving forward with a plan to have disabled people monitor closed-circuit television (CCTV) security cameras, but the project will be limited to those who can get up the stairs to the fourth-storey CCTV control room on their own. Phuket City Superintendent Wanchai Ekpornpit told the Gazette yesterday that his department is working with the Phuket…
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Crackdown on roadside food vendors in Wichit
WICHIT, PHUKET: Wichit Municipality has made an ambitious New Year’s resolution: to rid public roads of food vending carts and trolleys. Wichit Mayor Kreetha Saetan said the municipality and local public health workers have pleaded with mobile food vendors for over a year not to set up along public roads, especially in the market area across from the Phuket Villa…
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Phuket holiday road toll: 8 dead, 92 injured
PHUKET CITY: Final figures are in for this year’s ‘Seven Days of Danger’ road safety campaign in Phuket and they are depressing indeed with eight dead – almost triple the number from last year, when three died. Figures released by the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM-Phuket) today showed that 82 reported accidents left 92 people with injuries requiring…
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Fabio! Your wallet’s in Phuket
KAMALA, PHUKET: Kamala Police are trying to contact an Italian tourist named Fabio Fanzani, whose wallet was found by a Thai tourist at Surin Beach and handed over to authorities a week ago. Lt Col Supavich Suvanpirom said the wallet was found by 31-year-old Petchaboon native Khanungnit Kwanyao, who is in Phuket for the New Year holiday. “I saw the…
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Snatch-and-run bandits nabbed in Phuket
KAMALA, PHUKET: A pair of of English tourists will leave Phuket today with no pictures of their holiday to show friends back home – thanks to the depredations of a trio of thieves in Kamala. Phuket Provincial Police Commander Pekad Thantipong and Kamala Police yesterday afternoon held a press conference to announce the arrest of two men wanted in connection…
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Phuket holiday road toll: 6 dead, 85 injured
PHUKET CITY: Going into the last day of the ‘Seven Days of Danger’ road safety campaign there were six dead and 85 injuries from 79 reported accidents in Phuket. One of the dead was an Australian. Statistics from the Phuket office of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM-Phuket) show Muang District had the highest numbers, with four dead…
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Wild car crash in Phuket Town
PHUKET: Like a scene out of a Hollywood action movie, an out-of-control car plowed through market stalls in the Samkong area of Phuket Town yesterday morning, leaving scores of motorbikes damaged and one woman with a broken arm. Phuket City Police were informed of the accident at 9am. Arriving at the scene, opposite the Dairy Hut restaurant on Hongyok U-thit…
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Sea turtles fitted with GPS in Phuket
PHUKET CITY: Researchers from the Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) have fastened GPS electronic tracking devices to the backs of eight young green turtles, which were released off the coast in Phang Nga. The small GPS transmitters will transfer important research data back to the PMBC at Cape Panwa. These turtles will provide much needed information about the behavior patterns…
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Readers’ Poll: CCTV expansion in Phuket Town
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (PPAO) is installing 53 more CCTV cameras in and around Phuket Town at a cost of 17 million baht. The stated aim is to improve security for residents and tourists alike. The PPAO says it plans to extend coverage to other parts of the island, including Chalong, in the future. Do you think this…
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The Sam Van Treeck case: five years on
PHUKET CITY: Thailand’s five-year effort to extradite fugitive murder suspect Sam Van Treeck to stand trial for the stabbing murder of Chompoonut ‘Jeab’ Kobram in Pattaya in 2004 appeared to take a step backwards on December 31 when a Belgian court granted his release from prison on a conditional basis. Van Treeck, a former tour guide in Thailand, was charged…
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OPINION: Public transport a blot on the Phuket landscape
PHUKET: Last week, a family of French tourists were savagely assaulted with a steel shaft at Kata Beach when they attempted to park their rented car for a late afternoon spell of sun and fun on the sand. The attack occurred in front of the local Municipality Office opposite the Kata Beach Resort, and right next to a police post.…
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‘Seven Days of Danger’: 3 dead, 56 injured in Phuket
PHUKET CITY: Three people died and 56 more suffered injuries requiring hospital admittance in Phuket during the first four days of the ‘Seven Days of Danger’ road safety campaign that began December 29. Sun Chuntarawong, who heads the Phuket office of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Phuket (DDPM-Phuket), said the first fatality was six-year-old Kitikwan Srichai of Phang…
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Boy, age 10, Phuket’s first drowning victim of 2010
RAWAI, PHUKET: A ten-year-old boy celebrating New Year’s Day with his family at Nai Harn Beach is the first drowning victim of the year in Phuket. Duty Officer Chingchai Duangsuwan of the Chalong Police identified the victim as 10-year-old Apichet ‘Nong Max’ Srinakarak, a student at Wat Thep Nimit School in Wichit. Notified of the drowning at 5pm, Chalong Police…
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Friendly frogs draw tourists to temple
AYUDHAYA: Tourists have been flocking to a temple in the old capital district to get close to a group of tame frogs that have taken up residence in a lotus pond. The frogs sit happily on lotus leaves, allowing tourists to stroke and play with them. They even allow photos to be taken, free-of-charge. Phrakhrupradit Kijjarak, 46, the abbot of…
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New Year’s Eve shooting murder in Phuket
RAWAI, PHUKET: Police are searching for the gunmen who shot and killed a man celebrating the New Year holiday early yesterday morning in what police believe was a revenge killing by rival gang members. Chalong Police Investigator Boonlert Onklang identified the deceased as 24-year-old Wanchai Withaya, a Chalong resident. Police received a report of the shooting at the popular Icon…
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Phuket Gov pushes for ‘ring road’
PHUKET CITY: Phuket’s Governor continues to push for new road projects on the island, the latest a ‘ring road’ though the east side of Phuket Town connecting Wichit and Rasada. Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop told a meeting of provincial department heads on Tuesday that he is hoping the controversial Klong Koh Pee (‘Ghost Canal’) Road project will get the green light…
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Phuket divided over concerts on Karon Beach
PHUKET: The results of the Phuket Gazette Readers’ Poll closed yesterday show that opinion is divided over whether Karon Beach is an an appropriate venue for mass-audience, outdoor concerts like the ‘Roy Fest’ held in September. Readers were asked which of four responses best match their views on the following question: “With the ‘Roy Fest Phuket Music Festival’ in September…
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Phuket jet-ski woes continue
PATONG, PHUKET: Despite the mandatory insurance scheme for rental jet-skis that went into effect last month, problems between jet-ski operators and tourists persist and scores of unregistered jet-skis continue to operate in Patong Bay. Marine Transport Department officer Songchai Na Nakorn told the Gazette forty-one jet skis in Patong are currently out of service because their insurance applications are still…
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Phuket tuk-tuk driver goes into hiding after assault on tourists
KARON, PHUKET: The tuk-tuk driver wanted in connection with the savage beating of French tourists in Kata last Saturday has gone into hiding, the Gazette has learned. “Now, the suspect has run away. He is not at his house and didn’t show up at the tuk-tuk parking area as normal,” Chalong Police Investigator Chana Sutthimaat told the Gazette today. The…
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Student dies of electrocution in Phuket
CHALONG, PHUKET: A 17-year-old student of the British International School died from an accidental electrocution on Christmas Day. Chalong Police Investigator Boonlert Onklang identified the deceased as Anurak Gottschalk, son of a German photographer and his Thai companion who works as a cook aboard a tour boat. At about 5:30pm, the boy’s German uncle and a housemaid found Anurak dead…
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Cooking contests at Phuket Red Cross Fair
PHUKET CITY: A contest to find the best cooks of local Phuket dishes will be one of the many highlights of the annual Red Cross Festival that begins at Saphan Hin today. Somsak Songnui, chief of the Phuket Provincial Development Office, said his office has organized the competition as part of this year’s Local Food Festival, which runs concurrently with…
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Phuket gets THB 10 billion for development projects
PHUKET CITY: Cabinet has approved a 2010 budget that includes ten billion baht (approx US$ 295 million) in funding for Phuket under the Finance Ministry’s ‘Thai Khem Khaeng’ (Strong Thailand) stimulus package. The new budget green lights projects intended to solidify Phuket’s position as one of Southeast Asia’s leading tourist destinations. Highlights of the plan include a major airport expansion,…
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TAT ‘worried’ about Phuket tuk-tuk gangs
PHUKET CITY: The director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office in Phuket says her agency is ‘working on a plan’ to deal with aggressive tuk-tuk drivers in Phuket, the Gazette has learned. Bangornrat Shinaprayoon, director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) South Region Four office in Phuket, told the Gazette today that she was aware of the…
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Malacca Strait security meeting in Phuket
PHUKET CITY: Royal Thai Navy officers and their counterparts from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are taking part in the four-day ‘Intelligence Exchange Group Meetings’ aimed at boosting security in the Malacca Strait.Leading the Thai contingent is Commander Suchart Thammapitak, Director of the Naval Civil Affairs Department at the Royal Thai Navy Third Naval Area Command Base at Cape Panwa.The talks,…
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French tourists attacked for parking in ‘wrong place’
PHUKET: Chalong Police are on the hunt for a man presumed to be a ‘tuk-tuk / taxi driver’ who allegedly set upon a French family with a beach umbrella in the Kata area of Phuket on Saturday evening. The family, an elderly couple on holiday with their 44-year old son, his wife and their three children, aged 14 months, seven…
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