Unidentified male body found floating off Koh Maithon
In a startling discovery, a male body was found floating in the waters off Koh Maithon, a small island located just over 8 kilometres southeast of Cape Panwa, late on November 29. The body was spotted by the crew of a local tour boat.
The tour boat’s staff waited for about an hour and a half. However, as daylight began to wane, they were forced to depart. The local police were informed of the grim find around 4.45pm, as reported by Police Lieutenant Sommat Tanmaneeprasert of the Wichit Police.
The unidentified man was found in a state of undress, wearing only shorts. It could not be immediately determined whether the man was a foreigner or a local, reported The Phuket News.
The southern part of Thailand has been grappling with severe floods, and most local charity rescue workers have been deployed to these areas. Therefore, the responsibility of retrieving the body was passed on to the Royal Thai Navy Third Area Command based at Cape Panwa. They announced that a navy vessel would be dispatched to recover the body.
However, the Third Area Command has yet to confirm the successful retrieval of the body. The tour boat had marked the body’s location with a buoy, but it was not anchored in a fixed position, complicating the recovery process.
The boat tour company representative, who reported the find, was transferred between five different government agencies, each time recounting the details of the discovery. The company’s tour boat had remained alongside the body, found in the waters between Phuket and Koh Maithon, for nearly 90 minutes. They marked the body with a buoy before leaving due to diminishing light.
Unfortunately, the tour boat received no response from the authorities during that time. The location where the body was discovered was reportedly just a 15-minute boat ride from Phuket.
