Northern Thailand News
Stay updated with the latest Northern Thailand news at The Thaiger, your ultimate source for regional information. Keep informed on local events, business developments, and lifestyle stories in popular locations like Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Pai.
Our in-depth coverage includes famous monuments such as the White Temple and Doi Suthep. Whether you’re a resident or a visitor, The Thaiger’s Northern Thailand news page is your essential guide to exploring this culturally rich region. Delve into the vibrant community and diverse culture with our expertly curated content, designed to keep you connected and well-informed.
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Summer storms batter Korat, Buri Ram
Sudden summer storms caused extensive damage in two provinces in Thailand’s northeast yesterday: many villages in tambon Nong Ma Nao in Khong district of Nakhon Ratchasima, also known as Korat, were struck by a summer storm late last night. Numerous houses were severely damaged by the storm, which started at about 11pm. Some structures were entirely demolished. The roofing sheets…
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Khon Kaen University students in anti-government demonstration
“We are afraid of the virus. But, we are also duty-bound to study and seek the government’s ouster.” Adding to a growing trend, students at Khon Khaen University in northeastern Thailand held a second demonstration last night, despite fears of the Covid-19 coronavirus spread, saying they’ve “had enough” of the government. Students from all departments gathered at the multi-purpose ground…
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Soldiers sent to fight forest fires in the North
With Chiang Mai again declared the world’s most polluted city today, and with air quality worsening across northern Thailand, soldiers from Royal Thai Army 3rd Army Region have been deployed to detect and fight forest fires. Forest fires and agricultural burning, both in Thailand and neighbouring Cambodia, have created extremely poor air quality levels. Rangers from the 35th Scout Regiment…
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Body in oil drum discovered in Chiang Rai reservoir
Police in Chiang Rai discovered a dead body stuffed into an oil drum floating in a reservoir. The 200 litre drum has allegedly been floating in the reservoir for over a week. Investigators learned from local villagers that the oil drum had been floating in the middle of the reservoir since last about March 3. Only when the drum brought…
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Hotting up in northern Thailand
Hot, damn hot! The Thailand Meteorological Department says that a “thermal low” currently covers upper Thailand, while westerly winds prevail over the region, making the weather hot to very hot in some parts of the North, the Northeast, the Central and the East regions. Unpredictable weather and hotter days are normal for this time of the year leading up to…
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Cop in solitary for videos mocking PM
A policeman in Isan, in Thailand’s northeast, is today in solitary confinement for posting video parodies of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. Police say the officer, who works in Amnat Charoen province, will be jailed for three days for his mockery of the PM. “We asked him and he said he did it for fun. He felt guilty. Since he is…
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Drunken woman, legally dead, uses calling card to make 50 emergency calls in a day
Police in northern Thailand’s Loei province were notified that someone using a calling card had been calling 191 all day. The police went to inspect a location whre they found a drunk woman, identified as 51 year old “Mrs. Waruni.” She had no home address and was using her calling card to call 191, the emergency hotline of the Royal…
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Chinese murderers arrested in Burmese border town
Burmese authorities in Tachileik, bordering Chiang Rai, have arrested two Chinese men wanted for murder in Thailand. Chinese nationals Xiao Xiang Yu and Hu Zheng Xiong are two of four men wanted for the murder of Chinese businessman Wang Jun. Police retrieved a suitcase containing Wang’s bounds body from the Ping River on February 25. The two were captured in…
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Precautionary warnings for weather in the north and north east
Some warmer, pre-summer weather is heading to the north of Thailand for the rest of this week. (Forecasts for Khon Kaen and Bangkok below). The warnings are mostly precautionary as the general forecast still remains reasonably stable. On the plus side, a bit of extra wind may blow away some of the offending smoke and haze that has beset the…
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Surin teacher faces severe punishment for selling teen girls for sex
A 51 year old local schoolteacher in Thailand’s northeastern Surin province, near the Cambodian border, was among the owners of three karaoke bars caught selling the sexual services of underaged Thai girls this week. Nineteen women, thought to be sex workers, were taken into custody following raids on the bars. The businesses were closed and their owners face a range…
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Teacher busted for pimping underaged girls
A schoolteacher in the northeastern province of Surin was charged yesterday with providing underage girls to male clients for sex. The 51 year old teacher and a 41 year old karaoke bar owner were arrested after the Interior Ministry received a formal letter from an international organization against human trafficking. Police found five girls, one of whom is only 15…
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Justice Ministry to go after drug gangs’ assets
Justice Minister Somsak Thepsuthin says drug syndicate networks along Thai borders, especially in the North, produce drugs worth about 1.9 billion baht annually. Now his ministry has set up a centre to seize their assets as part of an effort to stamp them out. Somsak says the amount of assets and money seized annually is too low: only about 400-500…
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Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai – all suffering choking smog today
The whole Bangkok and its suburbs is suffering from excessive PM2.5 dust and smoke particles in the air today. Around the city the readings have been uniformly ‘unhealthy’ for the entire day with readings as high as 188 particles of 2.5microns per cubic metre. Putting a stamp on the whole appalling situation is the list of the world’s Top 10…
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Mother and daughter arrested over 7 million baht fortune-telling scam
Appears the pair weren’t smart enough to predict the police coming to their door. A Thai fortune teller and her daughter have been arrested after charging a customer more than 7 million baht for predictions and forecasts about their life. Normally, fortune-telling sessions, popular in Thai life, range between 100 and thousands of baht, depending on the popularity of the…
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Former deputy commerce minister and police lieutenant arrested for suspected murder
Former deputy commerce minister and police lieutenant colonel Banyin Tangpakorn was arrested this morning, along with two other people, in the central province of Nakhon Sawan. Police believe the three were involved in the disappearance of the brother of a senior Criminal Court judge. Banyin is a former MP for Nakhon Sawan, of the now-defunct Palang Prachachon party. The arrest…
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Suspected forest fire arsonist arrested in Lampang
Despite prohibitions on agricultural burning, wildfires continue ravaging forests across Thailand’s North. Now, police have arrested an arsonist suspected of starting forest fires in the northern province of Lampang. Forest rangers suspect he started fires in the Mae Jang forest reserve. Udomsilp Thithamma was arrested at his shelter in the compound of a rock crushing plant. Bundles of mosquito repellent…
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Used-car dealer, entire family dead in mass suicide
A used car dealer and his entire family in the northern province of Phitsanulok have been found dead, in an apparent mass suicide. Even the family dogs were not spared. The family were found asphyxiated, with a lit charcoal stove in the room. Police were called yesterday after relatives found the bodies. There were five dead people and six dogs…
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Principal beats 10 year old, threatens to kill him and “eat his liver with whisky”
A grandpa in the northeastern province of Surin couldn’t take it anymore and decided to file a police report after a school principal gave his 10 year old grandson a head injury. The statement alleges that the principal threatened to beat the boy to death and to “eat the child’s liver with whisky.” 83 year old “Supon” filed the report…
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Prayut visits Korat, offers compensation to shooting victims, families
Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha went to Korat, in the northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima province, scene of the shooting rampage earlier this month that left 30 dead and 58 wounded. He met with people and families affected by the massacre and offered compensation totalling tens of millions of baht. He and accompanying ministers met locals after praying for peace at the…
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Drug runners killed in Chiang Rai clashes
Police in Chiang Rai province report that three drug smugglers were killed and another arrested in two clashes with security forces near the Burmese border last night. A total of 400,000 methamphetamine pills and 7 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine were seized. The first clash occurred about 9:30pm after a number of pickup trucks and motorbikes were spotted crossing the border…
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Heroin smuggler busted in Chiang Rai
A man has been arrested in Chiang Rai’s airport attempting to smuggle heroin. 27 year old Jatuporn Saeuan was searched and detained before boarding a flight to Bangkok when security officers found his behaviour suspicious. Security officers say Jatuporn “kept wandering back and forth in front of the entrance” to Mae Fah Luang Airport, so they asked demanded to inspect…
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Thousands gather for merit-making ceremony in Korat
Tens of thousands of mostly residents of Nakhon Ratchasima attended a Buddhist merit making ceremony in Korat today to pay tribute to the late King Narai the Great, founder and heroine of the north eastern province, Thao Suranaree, during the early days of the Chakri Dynasty, and to remember the victims of the mass shooting last Saturday. The gunman was…
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Korat shooter video goes viral
A video, purportedly showing the soldier in last weekend’s mass shooting killing an army private before taking guns and ammunition from an armoury, has gone viral today. It comes after a week of editorials and public condemnation of the behaviour of netizens and media who shared gruesome images of the slaughter. The three minute clip, the authenticity of which has…
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Families of 27 Korat victims to get 1 million baht
Families of 27 of the people killed in last Saturday’s mass shooting in Nakhon Ratchasima will receive a million baht in compensation from the government. Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, who chairs a committee to decide such settlements, said today that no money has been earmarked for two of the fatalities, over which there is a “dispute,” or for the…
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Khon Kaen monk arrested, disrobed after bomb threat
A monk in the northeastern province of Khon Khaen has been arrested and disrobed after giving false information to police. The monk called the 191 emergency line and stated that a bomb had been placed inside a hotel. He later claimed that the information was to make officers “more aware.” Police arrested 30 year old monk “Santisuk” in the province’s…
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Don’t blame the Thai army, blame the soldier – General Apirat
“The army chief offered his condolences to families of those killed and the injured and promised a career in the army if the victims’ children want to join the service.” The 32 year old gunman who shot 30 people dead during his Saturday afternoon shooting spree in Korat over the weekend, Jakrapanth Thomma, owned legally registered guns. He had five guns –…
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UPDATE: 12 year old boy shoots friend dead in Kalasin
A thirteen year old boy is dead in the northeastern province of Kalasin, after being shot by a friend playing with his father’s gun. Police and medical services were called to a house in Nong Kung Sri district on Sunday morning after the boy was shot, local media report. Police say that three boys were playing when one boy, aged…
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Korat Massacre – Did police use a drone to find the gunman?
A story from Germany’s Deutsche Welle news agency today reveals how tactical police were able to use a drone to trackdown the 32 year old gunman to a storage room at the back of a supermarket (scroll through to 1.30 in the YouTube story below to watch the drone footage). Although no one else appears to have reported this aspect of…
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Land mine severs man’s foot in Phrae
A man in the northern province of Phrae had his foot blown off by a land mine yesterday morning while cutting bamboo. Police say the incident occurred at about 8am in a community forest. A medical team and a bomb squad were sent to the scene to investigate. 21 year old Yossakorn Chuchart told police that he and his father,…
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HM The King offers condolences, grants royal patronage of funerals
“The government is profoundly saddened by the mass shooting and would like to extend its moral support to all Thais and the people of Korat.” This morning the Thai PM General Prayut Chan-o-cha made a statement across the Thai television pool. He passed on a message from His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Her Majesty Queen Suthida who expressed their…
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