Phuket News
Discover the latest news and updates from Thailand’s most famous and beautiful island, The Thaiger’s hometown, having previously operated as the Phuket Gazette.
Our team brings you breaking news, in-depth analysis, and exclusive stories from Phuket, covering everything from local politics and business to lifestyle and tourism. Learn about the island’s stunning beaches, vibrant nightlife, and thriving expat community, as well as keeping updated on events, and attractions.
The Thaiger is your ultimate guide to staying connected with Phuket’s ever-evolving landscape. To keep up with the most reliable news source on the island, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media.
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UPDATE: Body of foreigner found dead in Phuket is US man
UPDATE: The foreigner’s body that was found in waters off Yanui Beach in Phuket’s main city district yesterday morning has been named as US citizen John Joseph Sheridan. The 74 year old’s body was discovered floating in the water after he apparently fell on sharp rocks and bled to death. Fisherman found Sheridan, from Pennsylvania, floating on the rocky part of the shore…
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Foreigner’s body found off Phuket beach
A foreigner’s body was found in waters off Yanui Beach in Phuket’s main city district this morning. Even though police found an American passport with the body, they stressed that they have not yet officially identified the man. The passport is for a 73 year old man. Police also found Thai and Korean cash with the body, as well as…
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No more monkey business! Phuket monkeys lose tourists from monkeypox scare
Phuket’s monkeys are missing out on their usual feedings from tourists at Koh Siray island’s monkey viewpoint. At the viewpoint, tourists usually buy fruit from vendors to feed to the roughly 200 monkeys there. But following Phuket’s recent monkeypox scare, after a Nigerian man was found to have the virus, fewer tourists are coming to feed their furry friends. Local…
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Armed robber makes off with 160,000 baht from Phuket Tesco
Bank robberies are generally violent affairs, with lots of drama, some shots fired, and an injury or death. But this wasn’t the case when a stick-up occurred yesterday afternoon at a Tesco Lotus department store in Phuket. The cheeky armed robber wandered into the store in the Rawai area of Muang district shortly before 1pm and casually made off with…
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Health officials test 19 for monkeypox after contact with fugitive
After a Nigerian man fled Thailand upon being diagnosed with monkeypox and was subsequently captured in Cambodia, authorities have been tracking down anyone in contact with him to test them for the disease. Health officials have identified 19 high-risk people who came in close contact with the man and have now tested all of them for monkeypox. Results are still…
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Phuket gold necklace thief arrested, Pattaya thefts still unsolved
After an apparent rise in gold necklace snatching crime, police in Phuket have managed to nab one man accused of grabbing a necklace from a woman on her motorbike a few days ago. The necklace that was grabbed as the woman rode her motorbike was gold with a pendant attached and is valued at about 35,000. The Deputy Inspector-General of…
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UPDATE: Thailand’s first monkeypox case goes missing
UPDATE: The 27 year old man who tested positive for the monkeypox virus in Phuket has been missing since Wednesday, July 20 at 9.05pm, according to Phuket police. Despite Thai media widely reporting that the man escaped from the private hospital in Phuket where he initially presented with symptoms, he was actually staying at Patong Princess hotel when he went…
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BREAKING: Thailand’s first monkeypox case allegedly escapes Phuket hospital
Edit: Inaccuracies in this story have been corrected in a recent update. Thailand recorded its first case of monkeypox yesterday. During the night, the 27 year old Nigerian man allegedly escaped from a private hospital in Phuket and drove away in a white car. Officials are currently tracking him down but his whereabouts are unknown. At present, no further details…
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Thailand’s first monkeypox case is identified in Phuket tourist
Thailand has recorded its first case of monkeypox, the 71st country in the world during this recent outbreak, only the fourth since the start of the 21st century. The virus has only been endemic in a few Central African countries up to this stage. The 27 year old man, who had been travelling from Nigeria, was confirmed with monkeypox after…
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Alleged gold necklace thief on the loose in Phuket
It turns out Pattaya isn’t the only spot in Thailand where thieves snatch pricey gold necklaces. One woman in Phuket says a thief on a motorbike grabbed her gold necklace worth about 35,000 baht last night. The victim, 25 year old Kawissara, said she was also driving her motorbike when the thief drove by and snatched her necklace off her…
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Heavy rains cause disruption around Thailand, Bangkok commuters deluged
Yes, it is the wet season. And, just in case you doubted it, Mother Nature has thrown down the rain in buckets to make sure you don’t forget, including Bangkok overnight. The Thai Meteorological Department has issued warnings of “isolated heavy to very heavy rain in most parts of the country” up to July 24. Some parts of the country,…
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Phuket residents welcome the new ‘Khao Daeng Glass Bridge’ to be built in Rawai
A community meeting in Rawai on Tuesday agreed to get behind the latest tourist attraction, the Khao Daeng Glass Bridge, a new viewpoint and tourism focus for the quieter south of the island. President of Phuket Provincial Administration Organisation, Rewat Areerob, presented details about the new attraction and said it was good to have the Rawai community backing the project.…
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Phuket to hold tsunami evacuation drill tomorrow
The tourist resort of Phuket will be holding a tsunami evacuation drill tomorrow from 2pm. Warning alerts in five languages, including English, Japanese, Chinese, and Russian will be available, and 200 assembly points in three districts are prepared. The Director of Phuket’s Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, Udomporn Karn, informed the media that Phuket’s yearly tsunami evacuation drill would focus…
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Striped dolphin dies in Patong after washing ashore injured
A striped dolphin has died after beaching itself in Patong despite local rescuers’ best efforts. The dolphin was found after having washed up on shore with a serious injury and was reported first to the Patong Police just before 5:30pm yesterday. Kathu district lifeguards were the first to spot the striped dolphin as it came ashore and when they saw…
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Phuket woman rushed to hospital after jumping from bridge
A Phuket woman has been rushed to a hospital after jumping from a bridge into a canal in the island province’s main city district this morning. Rescue workers pulled the 31 year old woman out of the shallow water, and took her to a nearby hospital. Details about her injuries have not yet been reported, though. The woman had jumped…
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Public grieves loss of doctor who drowned trying to save tourist in Phuket
Many are grieving the loss of a doctor who drowned while trying to save a tourist from drowning in Phuket. The doctor, 55 year old Surasit Pongaohapan, had rushed to rescue a British tourist from drowning on his honeymoon at Phuket’s Kata Beach. Witnesses say Surasit had been sitting on the beach before he rushed into the water to help.…
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Phuket lifeguards save 2 tourists at same beach where another 2 drowned
Lifeguards at Phuket’s Kata Beach saved two foreign tourists from drowning yesterday, the same day that another two people drowned there. The lifeguards rescued a man and a woman around 35 years old. They were choking on water before being taken to the Chalong Hospital in Phuket’s main city district. The tourists have both reportedly recovered in the hospital. They…
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Honeymooning British man drowns in Phuket, Thailand
A British man on his honeymoon refused to acknowledge a red-flagged no swim zone on the island of Phuket in southern Thailand and it cost him his life. Ali Mohammed Mian drowned only two days into his honeymoon after being swept out to sea when he tried to take a dip in choppy waters at Kata Noi Beach. The 34…
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Nearly 1,000 hotels in Phuket are currently considered “illegal”
NB: The photo of this property bears no resemblance to the content of the following story. Phuket is home to 994 small hotels which are facing closure as a result of their unauthorised use on public property. The building control laws were discovered to have been broken by about 53% of the investigated properties. Environmental laws were found to be…
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Wind plunges trees onto houses in Phuket
Thailand’s stormy season is raging on and causing some inconveniences to the people of Phuket. Earlier this week, strong winds plunged trees and cables onto houses in the island province’s Kamala district. Altogether, 5 different areas of the Kamala district were impacted. One tree fell into the middle of the road, and some trees brought down power poles. A large…
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Dead sea turtle with plastic lodged in its throat washes up on Phuket beach
A dead sea turtle with plastic lodged in its mouth and throat washed up on Mai Khao Beach in Phuket yesterday, July 11. Winai Seh-ew, the village chief of Mai Khao subdistrict in Thalang district, received a call from lifeguards at Mai Khao beach to say a big Hawksbill turtle carcass had washed up on the shore. Upon inspection, the…
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Four year anniversary of Phuket’s sinking of the ‘Phoenix’ – 46 people drowned
This week commemorated the fourth anniversary of the rescue of the 13 members of the Wild Boar football team from the Tham Luang Caves in Chiang Rai, a story that gripped international audiences. That story had a happy ending. But the ongoing drama in northern Thailand masked a much sadder story, that of the sinking of the tour boat, the…
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Weather warning in Patong urges people not to go swimming
With storms and high winds around Thailand, lifeguards at the popular Patong Beach in Phuket are warning people of the dangerous surf on the shores of the storm-blown ocean. They urge all swimmers at the beach to only use the safe swimming zones where yellow-red flags are posted and warned that swimming outside the safe areas can be very perilous…
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Driver critical after collision involving 5 vehicles in Phuket
A driver is in critical condition after a collision on a road toward Phuket International Airport involving five vehicles. The 26 year old pickup driver now in a critical state, Inyat Kendphet, tried to overtake a taxi on Don Chom Thao Road in Moo 4, Thepkrasattri, but was unable to move back into his own lane in time to avoid…
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Army helps repair houses of elderly and disabled in Phuket
The Royal Thai Army has helped repair and renovate the homes of elderly and disabled people in Phuket’s Thalang district. Many elderly and disabled residents in the Mai Khao subdistrict have been hit hard after 2 years of Covid-19 restrictions, and can’t afford to renovate their houses. The subdistrict had received about 20,000 baht per house to support repairs for…
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Andaman Sea tremors draw attention to the lack of tsunami warning buoys
A series of minor tremors in the regions off Thailand’s Andaman coastline is drawing attention to the lack of operational tsunami buoys in the Andaman Sea. There’s been a number of small earthquakes and tremors near the Nicobar Islands, about 540 kilometres northwest of Phuket in the Andaman Sea. A series of three underwater tremors, between magnitude 4.6 and 5.0…
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King tide in Phuket spurs online fears of a tsunami – it wasn’t
There was a lot of online chatter yesterday which was claiming there had been a small tsunami along the western shores of Phuket. The posts were correlating a king tide (unusually high tide) in Phuket, that was at its highest at 1.27pm (Sunday afternoon), some rough seas and a strong south-westerly swell in the Andaman Sea and Phang Nga Bay,…
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Runway temporarily closed for repair, flights to and from Phuket affected
Last evening Phuket International Airport closed for 2 hours whilst quick repairs were made to the runway. Earlier in the day, small cracks were found on the tarmac causing airport officials to postpone some flights and divert others that were on their way to Phuket. Repairs were made on the runway between 5 – 7pm as repairs were affected by…
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UPDATE: 19 year old Australian falls to his death at a Phuket hotel
UPDATE Phuket Police, Lieutenant Colonel Kokiat Boonplod, today confirmed there was no foul play involved in the death of 19 year old Australian Joshua Cornell. The teenager fell to his death from the 6th floor of a hotel rooftop in Phuket’s Patong Beach. The roof of a restaurant kitchen next door broke his fall. CCTV footage captured Cornell walking on…
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19 year old Australian falls to his death at a Phuket hotel
A 19 year old Australian, Joshua Connell, died when he fell from the 6th floor of a hotel rooftop in Phuket’s Patong Beach. He landed on the roof of a restaurant kitchen next door and was only wearing shorts.s CCTV video shows that he was balancing on the brick walling and steel railing of the rooftop area before losing his…
Phuket is a province in the south of Thailand. Phuket's beaches face the Andaman Sea allowing the west coast beaches fantastic sunsets right throughout the year. If you're looking for news in Phuket, go to thethaiger.com/phuket Or follow our instant news in our Facebook pages.
The good news is that Phuket is famous for its foodie scene with an enormously diverse range of local and international foods - Phuket and southern favorites, street food along with international choices catering for the 12 million visitors to the island each year. Thaiger follows Phuket news and information 24 hours a day with regular updates.
Phuket is only 'just' an island with a 300 metre bridge linking it to Thailand's mainland. We're always reporting in the news that the channel beneath is frequently dredged to maintain Phuket's status as an island. On the other side of Sarasin Bridge is the Province of Phang Nga.
Getting to Phuket is easy as the island has land, air and sea connections. Phuket is also used as a take-off point for local island trips as Thailand's largest island is surrounded by over 30 pristine islands. Koh Phi Phi and the famous Maya Bay are always in the news and would be the best known of the island's just off Phuket's shores.
Phuket is an island and a province. It's the largest island in Thailand – 48 km north to south, 21 km east to west.
It's about 20% smaller, in area, than Singapore but much less densely populated. Whilst the island nation of Singapore boasts a population of nearly 6 million, Phuket has a permanent population of around 400-450,000 (but varies a lot with the influx of tourists and a workforce that is always changing). Most of Phuket remains jungle and tropical rainforest despite an acceleration of development over the past 20 years.
Unlike some of Thailand's other popular islands (that are in the Gulf of Thailand), the news is that Phuket is located in the Andaman Sea.
Phuket is 878 km north of the equator.
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