Phuket News
Phuket news, politics, business, tourism, and nightlife—stay updated with breaking stories, events, and expat updates from Thailand’s top island destination. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Phuket news source.
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Bike Rally scrambles for new site
PATONG: Phuket Bike Rally organizers are scrambling to find a new location for the event after the Patong Municipality refused to allow it to be staged on the Patong football field or along Thaweewong Rd. The announcement came on Friday after a meeting involving the Municipality and interested parties, including a representative from Club Andaman Beach Resort, which hopes to…
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Submarine firm woos authorities
PHUKET: The promoters of planned submarine trips for tourists last night made a bid to convince authorities that their machine is safe – and to persuade them to issue the necessary permits. The presentation by Phuket Submarine Ltd, at the Royal Phuket City Hotel, featured slides of the DS-48 sub that the promoters hope will be operating in the waters…
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Corpse found on garbage pile
KOH SIREH: The partially decomposed body of a naked man was found in a pile of garbage among mangroves near Plermsuk Beach yesterday afternoon. Police were notified after local villagers found the body, dumped face down in a pile of garbage 200 meters from the main road. At the scene, officers discovered that the man had been shot in the…
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German dies in bike crash
CHALONG: A popular German dive instructor died after his motorbike collided head-on with a pickup truck not far from the Green Man Pub & Restaurant on Patak Rd early Wednesday. Sascha Schleicher, 36, was declared dead on arrival at Phuket International Hospital. Police believe he was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, about 7:30 am. Pol…
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Airport narcotics checks tightened
PHUKET: A food and drug checkpoint will open at Phuket airport tomorrow to try to prevent travelers bringing in illegal drugs or suspiciously large quantities of legal medication. Bangkok and Chiang Mai already have food and drug checkpoints; the one in Phuket will be the first in Southern Thailand. It will be at the international arrivals entrance, and will be…
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Alternative Bike Week hits roadblocks
PATONG: A second “Bike Week” planned for Patong seems to be running into roadblocks after groups listed by the organizer as “supporters” either denied all knowledge of the event, or expressed their opposition to it. The Phuket Bike Rally, organized by Harald Vesterheim, proprietor of the Pink Panther A-go-go and Panther Travel, is planned to take place from February 22…
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Shark fin suspect faces 10 years’ jail
PHUKET TOWN: A Taiwanese fisherman arrested today in possession of 42 shark fins could face up to 10 years in jail as an example to others, according to the Marine Police. After a tip-off, Phuket Marine Police nabbed the man when he moored his boat, “Jufusun”, at Rassada Port at about 11:30 am. The man, subsequently named by police as…
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Police seize fake goods, arrest four
PATONG: Police from Bangkok’s Crime Suppression Division (CSD) arrested four people and seized almost 2,000 fake brand-name goods yesterday evening in raids on two warehouses and two market stalls. The warehouse raids took place in Soi Chalermsub off Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd, where officers arrested Somporn Keatnu, 30, of Phatthalung, and Kompetch Sae’eung, 23, of Phuket. Both claimed to be…
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Thalang Rd to be walking street?
PHUKET TOWN: Authorities are canvassing opinion on a proposal to convert one of Phuket Town’s oldest and best-known streets into a pedestrians-only zone at weekends. Phuket Town Mayor Phummisak Hongsyok revealed yesterday that the concept has already been put to residents of Thalang Rd, receiving a mixed reaction. Opinions are still being sought and no deadline has been set for…
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Drop in arrests for gambling, drugs
PHUKET: Arrests for gambling and drugs fell away in December, the latest police statistics show. While gambling remained the number one illegal pastime – with 245 people arrested in 143 raids between December 1 and 25 – comparison with the same period in November shows a decrease of 47 arrests. On the drugs front, 108 raids were made, with 120…
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Purachai closes three nightspots
PHUKET: Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon went walkabout in Patong and Phuket Town until early this morning, and ended up ordering the temporary closure of three nightspots. He also rattled the operators of the famed Shark discotheque. The minister also had three foreigners arrested for fighting in the street as he walked by. K. Purachai and his team – which included…
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Fire guts seven houses
PATONG: Fire swept through seven wooden houses in Patong yesterday morning, causing damage estimated at 300,000 baht. No one was hurt. Firemen took 40 minutes to extinguish the fire in Soi Rong Bambat Namser, 50 metres from Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd. Pol Lt Serm Kwannimit, in charge of investigating the fire, told the Gazette that it started in a house…
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Bars should close at 11pm – Purachai
PHUKET: Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon shocked bar owners in Patong today when he commented he would like to see them close their doors at 11 pm each night. During a two-day inspection tour of entertainment venues in Patong and Karon, K. Purachai was stopped in Soi Bangla by three people claiming to represent owners of Patong entertainment venues. Handing him…
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Drug suspect makes a run for it
PHUKET: Torhed Cholahat, one of four suspects arrested on Monday (see https://thethaiger.com/news/index.asp?id=1833 ) for possession and sale of ya bah (metamphetamine), went on the run for seven hours yesterday after leaping out of a police pick-up truck. He was recaptured in a tin mine lagoon by a student who is on the Rajabhat Phuket Institute boxing team. An officer from…
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Copyright raid rumors spread panic
PHUKET: Widespread rumors of raids by police specializing in copyright infringement have led to panic among Phuket’s Internet cafées and shops selling software, games and music CDs, with many on the beach road in Patong closing temporarily, preferring to lose business rather than risk being caught. The word on the street is that the police arrived from Bangkok on January…
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Tourist’s death puzzles police
PATONG: Mystery surrounds the final hours of an Italian tourist whose body was found in a shallow pool of water near Patong Beach yesterday evening. Alerted by a tip-off at about 6 pm yesterday, police went to the site, near the Phuket Palace Hotel on the main Patong-Karon road, and found Luca Tesei, 35, lying face-down in the shin-deep pool.…
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Masseuse garotted by suspected hitman
PHUKET TOWN: Angkana Seawsuk, 28, a practitioner of traditional Thai massage, was murdered in the Rome Place Hotel yesterday evening by a young man posing as a customer. Pol Maj Songwut Khunjan, inspector of Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that Narong Noppiboon, manager of the massage section, told investigators he was doing a routine check of massage rooms…
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Undercover ya bah sting nets four
THALANG: Police have arrested four people for possession and sale of a total of more than 900 ya bah (methamphetamine) pills. The arrests began on Monday afternoon when an officer in plain clothes posed as a customer to buy 10 pills from a couple who run a shuttle boat for tourists between Koh Yao and Ao Por pier in Pa…
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PM’s sister launches women’s club in Phuket
PHUKET TOWN: Yaowares Shinawatra, sister of Prime Minister Thaksin, today chaired a meeting to launch the Phuket chapter of the Business and Professional Women’s Association of Thailand (BPWAT) at the Phuket Pearl Hotel. K. Yaowares, who is the Vice-Chairperson of the Business and Professional Women’s Association for the Asia-Pacific region, said, “I came here today to invite Phuket’s professional women…
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THAI silk turning to sandpaper?
BANGKOK (AFP): Thai Airways (a.k.a THAI) is re-launching the quest for a leader who can get the airline to shrug off its rapidly deteriorating image and revalidate its claims of running “smooth as silk”. THAI’s reputation used to be one of the best in Asia. But analysts and passengers are starting to see the airline fall apart. And Thailand’s prime…
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Police traffic blitz set for January 16
PHUKET TOWN: January 16 will be D-day for traffic offenders in Phuket Town, Pol Lt Col Teeraphol Thipjaroen, Deputy Superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, warned today. On that day, he told the Gazette, police will arrest anyone caught breaking traffic laws in Phuket Town, with special attention being paid to motorcyclists not wearing helmets. The crackdown will coincide with…
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Minister warns civil servants about prostitution
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand’s interior minister, who has been hailed for a clampdown on the country’s flourishing illegal sex trade, today warned civil servants of severe action if caught using under-age prostitutes. Purachai Piumsomboon has ordered the dismissal of any government employee found to use child prostitutes or women forced into prostitution, following a series of recent scandals. One 12 year-old…
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TAT chief suspended over graft allegations
BANGKOK (AFP): The Thai government has suspended the head of its tourism office, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), amid graft allegations over a railway construction contract, officials said today. Prime Minister’s office minister Somsak Thepsuthin said TAT governor Pradech Phayakvichien had been suspended and would be investigated over his links to a company that won the contract a decade…
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Police seize fuel-smuggling mother ship
PHUKET: Marine Police boarded and seized two Thai tankers laden with a total of 1.1 million liters of gasoline, which was being smuggled into the country on New Year’s Day. Pol Col Peera Boonliang, Superintendent of the Phuket Marine Police, said this morning that investigations into a smuggling ring led to the raids in which eight Thai crewmen were arrested.…
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Tourist in heated exchange with police
BANGKOK (AFP): An American arrested for refusing to pay his bill at a bar on the resort island of Koh Samui later started a fire at a local police station, authorities said this morning. Robert Alexander Sharkey, 36, was arrested at the bar last night when he refused to pay his food and beverage tab of about 1,000 baht (22…
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Phuket holiday road deaths down, but injuries up
PHUKET: In sharp contrast to the high road death toll around the country, only two fatalities were reported in Phuket between December 27 and January 1. Four people died in the province during the same period last year. Where Phuket did record scores more in line with the national statistics was in the number of people injured on the roads…
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Holiday road toll: four deaths per hour
BANGKOK (AFP): More than 500 people were killed across Thailand, mostly in road accidents, during six days of revelry marking the New Year holiday, the health ministry said this morning. The holiday death toll was 18 percent higher than expected, with 541 deaths between last Thursday and late yesterday, it said in a statement. Some 391 of them were the…
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One dead, two stabbed at ‘full moon’ party
BANGKOK (AFP): One foreigner drowned and two Britons were stabbed and seriously wounded during a giant beach party at a southern Thai resort last night. According to local reports, about 50,000 people – mainly foreigners – were at the party. A tourist police spokesman on the nearby island of Koh Samui said one foreigner was drowned after going for a…
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Yacht excise tax finally reduced
PHUKET: The chief of the Phuket Provincial Excise Office, Narong Srivanitchakorn, has announced that the long-awaited reduction in excise tax on foreign registered yachts has finally come into effect. The new rate of excise tax means that anyone keeping a foreign-registered boat in Thailand for longer than six months must pay taxes and duties totaling 37.6%, or 47.2% if the…
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Senator steps into land row
PA KHLOK: Phuket Senator Paiboon Upatising stepped into the middle of a dispute between local villagers and a Bangkok-based landowner yesterday, standing surety for 15 villagers accused of trespass and of obstructing government officials in the execution of their duty. The charges relate to a piece of land abutting the klong in which villagers keep their fishing boats. The villagers…
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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