South Thailand News
Southern Thailand news, Phuket news, Koh Samui news, and Krabi updates—stay informed on business, tourism, and local events from Trang, Songkhla, Yala, and beyond. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Southern Thailand news source.
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Monkeys drown in water tank after food and water shortage
15 monkeys were found dead in a water tank yesterday in Songkhla, near the Malaysian border. The province’s long-tailed macaque monkeys are facing a food shortage due to the lack of tourists in the area. Officials say the monkeys found yesterday must have been thirsty when they jumped in the 3 metre deep tank and drowned. There hasn’t been much rain in…
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Woman in southern Thailand accused of murdering daughter
A 54 year old woman, named by police as Prateep Chindawong, has been arrested for the murder of her 29 year old daughter in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat. Police say Chonthicha Jindawong was stabbed to death with a screwdriver. Thai media reports say the accused had claimed her house was broken into and that the intruder killed…
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National Covid-19 figures with 1 additional death (June 2)
Today the Centre of Covid-19 Administration reported 1 new Covi-19 case and 1 addition death in Thailand. This takes the total number of infections to 3,085 and the accumulated death toll to 58. The additional fatality was an 80 year old Thai man living in Narathiwat and the latest patient was a 32 year old male student who had recently…
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Southern mayor backs bounty for shark hunt after boy’s foot was bitten
People are searching for a shark after it bit a boy’s foot at the Chebilang pier in the southern province of Satun. The Chebilang mayor Mahmadneesum Bilungload even said he’ll give a cash reward of 1,000 baht to whoever catches the shark. He took a long tail boat out on Saturday afternoon to scope out the scene and try and…
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Transport Company interprovincial bus services to the South remain suspended
Transport Company, Thailand’s interprovincial bus company, announced this week that it is continuing its suspension of all services to the southern provinces as the country will be under the state of emergency until June 30. It did not say when services will resume. The company was expected to resume services from Bangkok to Koh Samui, Phuket and Trang from June…
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Thai actress allegedly scams Chinese businessman out of 2.5 million baht
A Thai actress allegedly tricked a Chinese businessman out of 2.5 million baht. Nation Thailand reports the woman worked with a gang to pose as high government officials who could help him with his business dealings. The businessman finally made a complaint with police yesterday at the Pak Khlong San Police Station in southern Thailand. The Nation reports he was…
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Son stabs father multiple times in Nakhon Si Thammarat
A father was stabbed 9 times by his son yesterday in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat. The Bangkok Post reports the 25 year old son was high on drugs and acting erratic. His 53 year old father tried to calm him down, but the son took out a knife and stabbed his father multiple times. The father, a…
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5 Thai students test positive for Covid-19 after returning from Saudi Arabia
5 students, who returned to Thailand from Saudi Arabia via Malaysia, have now been confirmed as being infected with the Covid-19 virus. The students are part of a group of 39 returning citizens who arrived back in the country via the Padang Besar road checkpoint at the Malaysian border. All 39 are reported to be in mandatory state quarantine at…
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19 kilograms of crystal meth, valued around 10 million baht, seized on Thai train
2 people are in custody and 19 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine or “ya ice” has been seized after it was discovered in their bags on an express train from Bangkok to the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat last night. 22 year old Ekkapong Kaewsa, of Bangkok, and his female companion 23 year old Methanee Suparb from Si Sa Ket,…
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Officers demand 5 million baht bribe, hundreds riot – VIDEO
All claiming to be police officers, 3 men in Southern Thailand tried to extort a man for 5 million baht so he could avoid arrest. Somehow hundreds of villagers in Surat Thani got involved and surrounded the policeman’s Toyota Fortuner, according to Thai media. A video from Thai PBS shows villagers rocking the vehicle back and forth, and the rear…
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Last Covid-19 patient in Songklanagarind hospital sent home
A hospital on the front lines fighting Covid-19 in the Hat Yai district of the southern province of Songkhla has released its last remaining Covid-19 patient. The patient was sent home yesterday, after making a full recovery. According to the staff at Songklanagarind Hospital, the patient fell critically ill in his home province of Narathiwat and had to be transferred…
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Thailand’s new Covid-19 cases – May 19
Today Dr Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, reported 2 additional cases of Covid-19 bringing the total number of cases in Thailand to 3,033. No further deaths have been confirmed today, leaving the accumulated toll at 56. No additional patients were discharged from hospital in the past 24 hours, leaving the number of recovered patients at 2,857 cases. The…
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Nakhon Si Thammarat gangster arrested over murder of wife’s lover
Police in the southern Thai province of Nakhon Si Thammarat have arrested a 32 year old local gangster and drug dealer for the murder of a 41 year old criminal associate last Tuesday. The incident took place in the evening, on the side of the road in the Klai sub-district of Tha Sala district. They identified the suspect as Sunathorn…
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Southern provinces face heavy rains from Cyclone Amphan
The Thai Meteorological Department said in its bulletin today that Thailand’s 6 southern provinces on the west coast, are expected to experience heavy rains, from tomorrow until Wednesday, due to the influence of developing Cyclone Amphan. While the storm won’t make landfall in Thailand, it is currently battering India as it barrels northward through the Bay of Bengal. “The cyclone…
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Truck overturns in Songkhla, injuring 12
12 seafood processing factory workers were injured after the pickup truck they were travelling in burst a tyre, rammed into a roadside lamppost, and overturned. The incident occurred in the southern province of Songkhla this morning. Authorities say the crash happened on Ramot-Songkhla Road in tambon Muang Ngam. Police and rescue workers rushed to the scene to find an Isuzu…
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4 alleged gang members arrested, more than a million speed pills seized
Police today announced the arrest of 3 members of a drug gang at 2 houses in Bangkok, and a fourth in the southern Narathiwat province on the Malaysian border. More than a million methamphetamine pills were seized. Police say the houses were used to store drugs smuggled from Laos. A combined team of soldiers, police and officials from the Office…
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Naked man steals motorbike in Nakhon Si Thammarat – VIDEO
On Sunday a completely naked man seized a motorcycle from a shocked woman in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat and rode away on it. Police found him yesterday at a nearby market, still without clothes. The incident occurred in broad daylight and in full view of witnesses. It was recorded and posted on Facebook and, predictably, went viral. The…
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Newborn found dead in southern Thailand university pond
There was a tragic moment last Monday when the body of a newborn baby was discovered in a pond at a southern Thailand university. . A security guard at Walailak University in Nakhon Si Thammarat province saw a black plastic bag floating near the edge of the pond. He told police that “the smell was strong and foul”. Inside the…
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Phuket bus driver shares government quarantine facility with coffin
A bus driver who left Phuket to return to his home city of Trang was left feeling a little, well, uneasy when he realised he would be sharing his government quarantine facilities with a coffin. Were the authorities just ‘planning ahead’? Or just a ‘whoops’ moment? The man had left Phuket as part of the exodus of some 50,000 people…
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Human Rights Watch says Thailand should free detained migrants
A significant number of migrants in Thailand’s Songkhla immigration detention centre have the coronavirus and the Human Rights Watch is saying all them should be free due to the dangers of the coronavirus pot the other detainees. In an article urging the release of the migrants, the HRW said the virus infections “spread like wildfire in squalid lockup” and that…
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Dozens of staff at Narathiwat hospital quarantined
62 staff of a hospital in the southern Narathiwat province, bordering Malaysia, are now in quarantine after making contact with a man who arrived with flu-like symptoms and later tested positive for Covid-19. The hospital’s director says that a 45 year old man from Waeng district walked into the hospital on May 30 to be treated for flu. “He stayed…
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Roadside ambush in Pattani kills 1 and injures another
Last night southern police reported that at 7pm a paramilitary ranger was shot dead and another injured in a roadside ambush in Sai Buri district in the Pattani province. There has been an unofficial ceasefire between the insurgent factions and government soldiers and rangers, during April and the height of the Covid-19 crisis, but that now seems to be over.…
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First month in 16 years with no insurgency attacks in Thailand
Last month was the first in 16 years in which there were no insurgent attacks on Thai forces or civilians, either in Thailand’s restive Deep South or elsewhere. The country’s three Muslim-majority southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat, all around Malaysia’s northern border, have been embroiled in a bloody separatist insurgency for the best part of two decades. More…
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3 suspected insurgents killed in Pattani
Authorities shot and killed 3 suspected insurgents on Thursday in Pattani province in Thailand’s deep South, long the home of a bloody separatist insurgency. Security forces believe the men were planning to mount an attack during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The shootings are the first act of violence since Malaysia’s Barisan Revolusi Nasional, or National Revolutionary Front rebels…
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Attempted murder charge for hit-and-run Mitsubishi driver
In a follow-up to a story previously reported in The Thaiger, police in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat are charging the driver of a Mitsubishi Mirage with attempted murder after he ran into a policeman, then sped off with the officer still clinging to the hood of his car. The officer held on for dear life as the…
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Police officer clings to hit-and-run car for 2 kilometres – VIDEO
A policeman in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat was taken on an unplanned car ride yesterday when a Mitsubishi Mirage tried to run him down, forcing him to jump onto the front of the car and hold on for about 2 kilometres. The incident was caught on security cameras. Officer Montri Nitichai of Tha Sala police station says…
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2 Songkhla immigration officers infected with Covid-19, 70 at risk
2 immigration officials from the southern province of Songkhla are reported to be infected with Covid-19, putting about 70 others at risk after close contact with the officials. The provincial communicable disease committee made the announcement today. The new cases, both officers working at the Sadao border checkpoint, brings the tally in the province to 39 after 2 weeks with…
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Thailand’s marine life is rebounding during Covid-19 crisis
The Marine National Park in the southern province of Trang spotted 4 dugongs, 4 dolphins and 8 sea turtles offshore near Hat Chao Mai National Park. The MNP and Hat Chao Mai National Park conducted the observation by sea and air covering the areas abundant with seagrass around Yong Lam Beach, Yong Ling Beach, and Ko Muk. The dugong pod…
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Medical team from Songkhla come to Phuket to help during Covid-19 outbreak
Phuket health workers have welcomed a special team of much-needed medics from southern Thailand’s Songkhla Nararin Hospital. The 50 medics arrived in Phuket yesterday to assist with Covid 19 cases and testing on the island. The team, led by the Nararin Hospital director, set up a field hospital to assist patients suffering from Covid 19. Phuket currently has the second…
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Songkhla zookeepers close up whilst keeping the tigers cool
Songkhla Zoo has announced its closure today as part of the southern province’s lockdown, but the zookeepers still have to take care of animals with the summer temperatures high and on the rise. The animals can become distressed at this time of the year with the extreme heat and need constant veterinary care. The zookeepers say they’re are trying as…
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