Three toddlers drown in tin mine lagoon

PHANG NGA: Three toddlers drowned in a lagoon in an old tin mine on Sunday after wandering off from their grandfather’s home in Tai Muang. Pol Maj Somporn Paungthong, inspector of Tai Muang Police Station, said that Prapaet Jaikeaw, 53, called police to report that the bodies of his three grandsons, three-year-old Apiwat Jaikeaw, two-year-old Watcharin Chunak and two-year-old Supawat Jaikeaw, had been found in a lagoon just 200 meters from his home. Maj Somporn told the Gazette, “K. Prapaet said he noticed the boys were not in the house at about 6 pm. He went looking for them, and 20 minutes later he found one of the boys floating in the water. “Villagers came to help dive for the other two. When all the boys were found, relatives rushed them to Tai Muang Hospital but the doctor prononced all three dead,” said Maj Somporn. Praphan Jaikeaw, the father of Apiwat, told police it was incredible that his three-year-old son died at the same time as his two nephews. He said it was very bad luck for his family. Maj Somporn said that K. Prapaet described a strange event that had happened just before the boys’ deaths. “[K. Prapaet] told us that one of his cats had just miscarried three kittens and put their bodies in front of his house. It’s very strange. It’s like it was some kind of warning.” Maj Somporn also told the Gazette that villagers said they believed there was some kind of curse on the area. They recalled a similar event several years ago, also on Visakha Bucha Day, when a three-year-old drowned. The boys were cremated at K. Prapaet’s home.