Phuket’s Patong claims another suicide victim

PHUKET: A half-Thai, half-Japanese teenager is the latest person to take his own life in Phuket’s popular beach resort of Patong.

Kathu Police were informed at 8:30am today of the apparent suicide by hanging at a guesthouse on Soi Patong Resort, off the beach road.

Capt Veerapong Sukito of the Kathu Police identified the victim as a 17-year-old whose name has been withheld at the parents’ request.

The man’s body was found hanging in a storeroom on the third floor of the guesthouse and restaurant operated by his Thai mother.

The man apparently used a black cord to end his life. In the storeroom, police found four cans of beer, one of them empty.

The family told police the young man drank a lot of beer in the downstairs restaurant the night before.

The man’s mother told police her son was a very sensitive youth.

The family accept the death as a suicide and do not suspect foul play, police said.

This latest incident follows South Korean Lee Jai Yup, 34, being found hanging by the neck in his room at Tina Guesthouse on Rat-U-Thit 200 Pee Road in Patong on September 14.

— Sittipong Nongkaew