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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Investigation reveals Narathiwat police protected weapon and drug suspects
An investigation into the southern Narathiwat provincial police department has revealed its police chief and subordinates protected weapon and drug suspects. According to the Bangkok Post, the commander of police, Waesamae Salae, and his subordinates are accused of taking bribes in exchange for helping drug and weapon suspects. The national police chief, Surachate Hakparn announced the news yesterday. Surachate says…
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Missing woman found buried in southern Thailand forest
Nakhon Si Thammarat Provincial Police Office discovered the dead body of a woman who went missing last month buried in the forest behind Khao Lom Monastery in southern Thailand. Police believe her murder was motivated by a conflict within a drug gang. Officers from the Nakhon Si Thammarat Provincial Police Office discovered the corpse of an unidentified woman buried in…
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Drug addict arrested for murdering employer with chainsaw
A Thai man was arrested at the weekend after he used a chainsaw to murder his employer while they worked together in a rubber plantation in the southern province of Surat Thani. The murderer tested positive for drugs, and police found a chainsaw and a knife covered in blood at the scene. A resident who lived near the murder scene…
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Bomb discovered under resident’s car in southern Thailand
A potentially deadly attack was narrowly averted in southern Thailand on Saturday night after a young woman discovered a bomb attached to her aunt’s car while searching for a missing pet. The improvised explosive device was later safely disposed of by experts, but authorities are still investigating the motive behind the plot. Enaz Haji Taye, the owner of the Bangkok-registered…
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Thai officials arrest overstaying French woman in Koh Pha Ngan
Thai officials arrested an overstaying French woman in Koh Pha Ngan this week. Sura Thani Immigration officers said in a Facebook post that they arrested the woman on Monday in front of the Bounty Resort on 85/1 Moo 8. The woman, 36 year old Myriam Naima Bakhoury, overstayed her visa by six days, the officers said. She was taken to…
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Pervert robs and sexually assaults owner of kratom shop
Police officers in the Tung Song district in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat are on the hunt for a pervert who robbed a local kratom shop and sexually assaulted its female owner by groping her private part before fleeing the scene. The CCTV footage of the incident circulating on Thai social media shows a man wearing a jacket…
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American teacher charged with reckless homicide over 8 year old’s drowning in Chumphon
An American teacher has been charged with reckless homicide after the drowning of an eight year old boy in Chumphon province. The boy’s family, however, says they don’t blame the teacher for his death. According to Khaosod English, the 45 year old teacher was an employee of a local church in Map Ammarit Sub-District, Pathio District. He was on holiday…
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Old woman severely injured after drunk official crashes car into her house
A Pattalung Provincial Council official has been accused of being drunk and disorderly while driving after he crashed his car into a house in the Si Banphot district of Pattalung in the southern province of Thailand, seriously injuring an 83 year old woman. The victim’s family are understandably furious as the suspect is still at large. The Pattalung Provincial Council…
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New Zealand tourist gets lost in forest in Koh Pha Ngan, Thailand
A New Zealand tourist got lost in a forest on Thailand’s Koh Pha Ngan island in the southern Surat Thani province on Sunday. Friends of the man, 56 year old Shaw Mace Bushel, alerted police that he had gone missing from his resort at 4am. Bushel’s friends had searched for him but failed to find him. A team of officers…
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Thailand extends emergency decree in Deep South
Thailand is extending the emergency decree in the Deep South for another three months. The decree applies to the border provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat and will run from March 20 to June 19. According to the Bangkok Post, the newest extension of the decree marks the 71st time it has been issued. The Deputy Prime Minister, Prawit Wongsuwon…
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Four suspects arrested over murder of 4 men in southern Thailand
Police arrested four suspects in connection with the murder of four men whose bodies were found in Juerae Lake and the Kolok River in the southern province of Narathiwat two days ago. Residents found three dead bodies with gunshot wounds in a sedan truck submerged in Juerae Lake. Then another lifeless body who was also shot dead was found in…
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Restoration of Maya Bay balances tourism, sustainability
The restoration of Maya Bay, Thailand, balances tourism with sustainability. Phi Phi Islands’ tropical paradise, made famous by Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie The Beach, has drastically reduced visitor numbers, and sea life is flourishing. The beach was closed in 2018 and before the pandemic hit, and in many respects, the past two years without pressure from great numbers of visitors have…
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4 bodies with gunshot wounds found in southern Thailand
Residents in the southern province of Narathiwas found the lifeless bodies of three people with gunshot wounds in a sedan truck submerged in the Juerae Lake yesterday. This morning, another dead body was found near the scene. The authorities have reason to believe that the two incidents are interconnected. Buketa Police Station received distressing reports from residents who had discovered…
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Man runs race in South Thailand wearing Forrest Gump costume
Run Forrest run! One participant in a 160 kilometre race in South Thailand made a splash with his unique attire. The man donned a Forrest Gump costume, complete with a plaid shirt, khaki pants, and a red cap, to the Amazean Jungle Thailand by UTMB 2023. The photo of the runner taken at the starting line in Betong district of…
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Woman accused of being a witch and sacrificing neighbourhood cats
A woman is in police custody after residents in the southern province of Songkhla accused her of being a witch and sacrificing neighbourhood cats. Yaowaluck Boonchum was accused by a cat owner of being into the occult after killing her five-month-old Persian cat as a sacrifice. The 44 year old woman denied the allegations, saying she is a cat lover,…
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SWAT officers shoot dead suspected insurgent in southern Thailand
Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T) officers killed a suspected insurgent in a shootout in Yala province, southern Thailand, early this morning. The deceased was suspected to have had a role in the ambush that killed a police officer on Friday, as well as the bombing of a PTT gas station in Than To district. At 4.30am today, a S.W.A.T team…
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Woman’s body found in water tank believed to be suicide
An elderly woman’s body was discovered in a 2,000-litre water tank behind a house in Nakhon Si Thammarat province. The grizzly discovery was made this morning behind a row house near a commercial building in Mueang district. Police believe the 67 year old woman committed suicide. The woman had been missing since February 15, and her husband has been searching…
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Police major killed in Yala bomb blast
The police major killed in a Yala bomb blast has been named Pol Maj Prasan Kongprasit, an inspector at Bannang Sata District Police Station. Prasan succumbed to injuries yesterday sustained when a homemade explosive device went off earlier in the day. Four others were wounded by shrapnel when the bomb exploded as they examined a crime scene in the southern…
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Senior Buddhist monk’s visit to Islamic education centre in Thailand’s Deep South sparks uproar
A senior Buddhist monk in Thailand sparked uproar over his visit to an Islamic education centre in the south. The visit to the centre in Narathiwat province in Thailand’s south came with heavy criticism on the second day of the House debate against the Prayut government yesterday morning. According to Thai PBS World, army officials defended the visit by saying it…
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Man walks over ‘500 miles’ and ‘500 more’ to marry his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day
The man who walked over “500 miles” and almost “500 more” and “to be the man who wakes up next to” his love, today arrived at his destination. Suthep “Maew” Prompjit walked 1,200 kilometres to prove true love still exists and met his girlfriend for the first time, after talking on social media for nearly six months. They start a…
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Remembering the dead – Koh Tao dive master mystery
Twenty-three years before diving instructor Neil Giblin from Birmingham died on Koh Tao last month, a fellow Brummie diver lost his life there. Giblin is the fifth Koh Tao dive master to die on the island where Ian Jacobs, from Sutton Coldfield, died on January 18, 2000. Jacobs was found at the bottom of a well on the island. Giblin…
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Railway bomb attack in southern Thailand injures 8 security officers
A bomb attack at a railway in Narathiwat province in southern Thailand yesterday injured eight subdistrict security officers. Officers at Rueso Police Station were informed that subdistrict security officers were injured by an explosion while on duty overseeing the safety of the railway line in the area of Duyae Village, Sao Or subdistrict, Rueso district. Assailants planted improvised explosive devices (IEDs)…
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Unique durian in South Thailand gets geographical indication status
Unique durians from one South Thailand province have been given geographical indication (GI) status. A new addition to the exclusive club GI products, Durian Sadet Nam Yala, received official recognition from the Intellectual Property Department of Thailand. This move is expected to boost sales and increase income for local durian growers in the southern border province of Yala. Deputy Commerce…
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Anwar’s maiden visit to Thailand raises hopes for peace
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar’s maiden visit to Thailand this week has raised hopes for peace in the troubled south. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in as the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia last year. The visit is expected to add momentum to the peace dialogue. Malaysia is the facilitator for the dialogue to end decades of conflict in Narathiwat,…
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Woman accuses police of seizing her car for personal use
A Thai woman accused officers from Sathon Police Station in the southern province of Songkhla of confiscating her car for personal use. The unnamed woman said her car was seized by the police two years ago despite not being involved in a crime. The woman reported that the police arrested her boyfriend in 2021 for possessing Kratom and two tablets…
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Thailand boosts protection of dolphins in Songkhla Lake
There are as few as 14 Irrawaddy dolphins in Songkhla Lake. The situation is so serious that the World Bank has become involved. Global dolphin experts recently met with local agencies at the World Bank office in Bangkok to come up with better ways to make sure the dolphins survive, and even flourish. The largest-ever convention of dolphin experts included…
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Sea nomads win land encroachment case in South Thailand
Sea nomads have won a land encroachment case in South Thailand after a month-long legal battle. The dispute was over a fence blocking access to a school on the island of Koh Lipe. The Ban Koh Adang school is located in a community populated by Thailand’s Moken minority group. The moken are a semi-nomadic Austronesian group that lives in Thai…
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American man dies after crashing Ducati into trailer truck
Tragedy struck in the southern province of Phang Nga yesterday when an American man died after crashing his Ducati motorcycle into a trailer truck at 5.30pm on Phetchakasem Road. Officers from Mueng Phan Nga Police Station investigated the scene of the accident and found the body of the foreign man on the road at the back of the trailer truck.…
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British woman who fell from KPN balcony goes home
The British woman who fell from a hotel balcony while on holiday on Koh Pha Ngan returned home to the UK after a successful fundraiser brought in £75,000 (3 million baht, US$100,000) in donations. Maddi Neale-Shankster, 21, was on a three-week trip to Thailand with her partner when she fell from the second floor of her accommodation on New Year’s Eve.…
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Freerunning Frenchmen warned by police after thrillseeking exploits in Thailand
Police warned five thrill-seeking Frenchmen that they face fines and time in prison if they are caught freerunning on residential buildings in Thailand. Trang Provincial Police received complaints from locals yesterday of the Frenchmen, aged between 25 and 30, filming their freerunning (also known as parkour) exploits over eight residential buildings in the southern province of Trang. Residents told police…
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