Fourth drowning in five days
SURIN BEACH: A retired Frenchman planning to make his home on Phuket drowned at Surin Beach yesterday, just hours before the body of a Singaporean tourist who disappeared while swimming off Karon on Monday was found.
The two incidents bring to four the number of people drowned in the waters around Phuket in just five days.
Frenchman Patrick Michel Peters, 56, drowned while swimming at Surin with his wife Jacqueline. Attempts to revive Mr Peters by artificial respiration failed. He was taken to Thalang Hospital, but was pronounced dead there.
Pol Capt Prakob Boonkaew of Cherng Talay Police Station told the Gazette, “Mr and Mrs Peters had retired and decided to live in Phuket. They were planning to buy a house in Kathu.”
This morning the body of holidaymaker Chris Ng, from Singapore, was found by searchers from the Tourist Rescue Center, floating in the sea close to where he went missing off Karon Beach on Monday.
Mr Ng and two friends got into difficulties in large waves. One friend, 25-year-old Muhayiddin Iyon, died after being pulled unconscious from the water, while Agus Tan, who was wearing a life jacket, survived and is now recovering.
The three, along with Mr Ng’s wife and two other friends, had arrived in Phuket on Friday for a short vacation.
On August 27, 53-year-old Italian Paolo Demedio drowned at Laem Singh.
