Body of missing French tourist found in southern Thailand

The body of the 34 year old French tourist who went missing on Saturday has been found in a crevice on the side of Phanthurat Mountain in Surat Thani province in southern Thailand.

Cyril Gollino is believed to have fallen off a cliff into the deep gorge. Police said they will need to abseil down the mountainside to retrieve his body, which is expected to take several hours.

The tourist was staying at Khao Sok Holiday Resort and was last seen on Saturday when he said he was going hiking. He was filed as a missing person on Tuesday when he failed to check out of the resort but his belongings were still there.

The Frenchman is thought to have fallen off the mountainside while looking for his drone. A builder named “Uncle Sa-gna” who was working at a nearby temple said that Gollino approached him between 3-4pm and offered him 2,000 baht to help look for his drone, which the tourist said he had crashed on the mountain.

However, Uncle Sa-gna said he was unable to scale the mountain and Gollino went off on his own. That was the last time he was seen.

Hundreds of people joined the search party for the Frenchman, which was temporarily called off due to bad weather conditions at 5pm yesterday and resumed early this morning.

At 12pm today, the search party located Gollino’s body after police tracked his phone signal to the cliff where he fell.

Police will contact the French embassy which will inform Gollino’s family of his death and coordinate the return of his body to France.

May he rest in peace.