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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Sponsored How to reduce out-of-pocket medical expenses in Thailand?
Managing medical expenses in Thailand is important as healthcare costs continue to rise. The country’s healthcare system includes both public and private options, but even with the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS) for citizens, many still face high out-of-pocket medical expenses....
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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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Drowsy driver crashes sedan into cyclists killing 1, injuring 10
A drowsy driver fell asleep behind the wheel of his sedan and crashed into a group of cyclists on the road in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat. One cyclist was killed and 10 were injured. A security camera on the Nakhon Si Thammarat-Surat Thani Road in the Sichon district clearly shows the incident that happened at 7am on…
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Shootout involving police ends with 1 dead, 2 injured
A fatal incident involving police officers occurred at a night restaurant in Songkhla. A shootout at the restaurant between a group of police officers and another group of customers left one dead and two injured. The incident took place in the early hours of the morning of Sunday, January 15 at a late-night diner next to the fire station of the…
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Insurgents kill defence volunteer in southern Thailand, 2 injured
Suspected insurgents launched a targeted attack on eight territorial defence volunteers in Narathiwat province in southernmost Thailand this morning. One volunteer was killed and two more are injured. At 8am, officers at Si Sakhon Police Station were informed that insurgents detonated a roadside bomb and fired shots with automatic rifles at Si Sakhon defence volunteers, killing one and injuring two,…
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Man bites dog: Dog-eating Thai man gets three months
A dog-eating Thai man has been sent to prison for three months for killing, cooking and eating his pet dogs, according to the Soi Dog Foundation. The charity said on Facebook yesterday that concern was raised by Soi Dog mobile clinic staff who encountered a puppy in the Chalerm Prakiat district of Nakhon Si Thammarat with a deep laceration to…
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2 missing Maniq men presumed dead in a cave in southern province
Authorities believe the two Maniq men who went missing a week ago died in a mountainous cave in the Kong Ra district in the southern province of Pattalung. People from the Maniq ethnic group, also known as Sakai, asked local forest rangers and a rescue team to search for the two men, Tong and Waeng Rakkongra, who went missing a…
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Heavy rain, flash flooding forecasted for six of Thailand’s southern provinces
Heavy rain to very heavy rain and flash flooding is expected to hit six of Thailand’s southern provinces from today until Sunday. According to Thai PBS World, the Meteorological Department says that the southern provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat are expected to see heavy rain over the next three days. Three other southern provinces of Songkhla, Phatthalung, and Nakhon…
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Southern Thailand’s Hat Yai railway targeted again
Train services between Hat Yai and Khlong Ngae in southern Thailand‘s Songkhla province were temporarily suspended again yesterday when officials discovered that several parts of the railway track had been removed by suspected insurgents. Services on the railway, which connects Hat Yai in southern Thailand to Padang Besar in Malaysia, resumed on New Year’s Day after the track was repaired…
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Local vets unable to save Koh Pha Ngan green sea turtle
The injured green sea turtle washed ashore on Koh Pha Ngan on Friday night died of its injuries, according to the local vets who were unable to save the injured chelonian. Quickly on the scene, a group of conservation volunteers, Phangan Sea Guardians, was alerted by villagers who came across the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) on Chaloklum Beach and rushed…
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No New Year’s Eve cheer from Deep South insurgents
New Year’s Eve sparked may have sparked hundreds of thousands of celebrations throughout the kingdom last night but festive cheer was in short supply as insurgency continued its reign of terror in the Deep South. Police reported several incidents last night intended to create a disturbance in four districts of the southern border province of Pattani last night. The incidents,…
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Songkhla lifeguard dies in search for missing girl
A Songkhla lifeguard died on the way to hospital after losing consciousness while taking part in the search for a 10-year-old girl who went missing off Songkhla beach yesterday. A team of Songkhla lifeguards were dispatched to Chalathat beach, a popular tourist spot, after being alerted at about 2pm that a 10-year-old girl had gone missing. They were joined in…
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Wedding turned into a bloodbath after groomsman shoots his friend
A wedding is supposed to be one of the happiest days of your life but for one couple it will be memorable for another reason after a groomsman turned the ceremony into a bloodbath by shooting another groomsman after their girlfriends started fighting. The gunman and his girlfriend are now on the run in Trang, southern Thailand An officer from…
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Police track down suspect in murder of woman dumped in garbage bin
Police believe the person responsible for the death of the woman dumped in a garbage bin in the Khao Sok National Park at the border of Phang Nga and Surat Thani is her boyfriend. Police reported they found evidence in the boyfriend’s home related to the murder of the woman, Suphattra Yodkaew, and is now on the run. Police identified…
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Patani Colonial Territory not played in Chiang Mai
Law students at Chiang Mai University cancelled a game night during which they planned to play the card game Patani Colonial Territory, following a visit by a mysterious “officer.” Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) report that a plainclothes “officer,” visited the Faculty of Law and other university administrators on December 26 after a student group announced that they were…
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Destitute man walks 1,000 kilometres over 11 days with 2 daughters to find job
The heart-wrenching story of a destitute man who walked 1,000 kilometres over 11 days to find work to feed his two starving children has a happy ending. The jobless man, Norraphat, and his two daughters, aged 10 and 12 years old, began their long arduous journey from a relative’s house in the Tung Wa district of Satun on December 11.…
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Body of dead woman dumped in garbage bin in southern Thailand
Kura Buri Highway Department officers in the southern province of Phang Nga found a dead woman’s body dumped in a garbage bin on the roadside near the Khao Sok National Park at the border of Phang Nga and Surat Thani yesterday. The murderer is still on the run. Highway department officer Makesuwan Suphannamok told the media that he and his…
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Backpack found on Koh Tao from sailor on HTMS Sukhothai
As search and rescue efforts enter their seventh day after the wreck of the HTMS Sukhothai, a tourist on Koh Tao found a grim relic of the tragedy. A Norwegian tourist on holiday on the tiny island in the Gulf of Thailand stumbled upon a backpack on the beach belonging to one of the missing sailors from the shipwreck. The…
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Southern Thai woman caught with 70 bizarre animal carcasses
Police arrested a woman from Songkhla province in southern Thailand for selling protected wildlife carcasses as ingredients for “exotic dishes.” Officers seized nearly 70 animal carcasses including monitor lizards, pangolins, langur monkeys, squirrels, mouse-deers, and civets. Yesterday, the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division was tipped off that a passenger was carrying protected wildlife on a train from Sukirin district in…
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7 killed and 2 injured in floods in southern Thailand
Seven people died and two more are injured as a result of floods in the southern provinces of Thailand. The water level has gradually decreased today. The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) reported today that heavy rain and strong winds from December 18 to 21 caused flash floods and landslides in nine provinces including Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat,…
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Hard rain stops train services in Thailand’s south
Heavy rain and high tides are bringing widespread flooding to Songkhla, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Narathiwat. Red flags in Songkhla’s Chalatat Beach advise people not to venture into the 4-metre waves that are pounding the coast. In Narathiwat province, those living close to the Kolok River are ready to move themselves and their valuables to higher ground as the water…
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Heavy rains close Gulf ferries, Surin Islands for 2 days
Heavy rains, high winds and thunderstorms have ferries cancelled and areas closing down for the next few days in the south of Thailand. In the Gulf of Thailand, all ferry services between the mainland and Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, and Koh Tao have been suspended for two days. On the Andaman Sea, the national park on the Surin Islands has…
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Northern Irishman missing in Khao Sok after kayak capsized
[UPDATE: His body has been found.] The family of a missing Northern Irishman is desperately seeking help on social media after his kayak capsized and he hasn’t been seen since. Odhran O’Neill has been travelling in Thailand and went kayaking in Khao Sok National Park yesterday afternoon. His boat capsized around 1pm and Facebook posts suggest he said that he…
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Battle lines drawn in Koh Lipe turf war
Thailand’s human rights commission (NHRC) is calling for the government to take urgent action in the Koh Lipe turf war to help sea gypsies living on the island in Satun province. The Moken are a semi-nomadic tribe that lives in Thai coastal provinces and inhabits over 800 islands in the Andaman Sea. They number less than 3,000 people. The Moken have…
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Bangkok runs Hidden Temples tour while Deep South restores temples
With so much talk during the pandemic about closing nightlife and the effect on tourism, one might forget that millions of people flock to Thailand to enjoy other facets of the kingdom aside from beaches and parties, booze, and women. Now, various government agencies are coming together to highlight the beautiful architecture and culture of the temples of Thailand. In…
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Patani Colonial Territory designer summoned for game of truth or dare
The designer of Patani Colonial Territory, a game based on the recent history of Thailand’s southern regions, is believed to have been summoned by police after the game was confiscated from a café in Yala. Chachiluk Games said that the game designer was not involved in the conceptualisation and production process. Reporting on Thailand involves at least one truly absurd story…
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VIDEO: Desperate Rohingyas dying on boat off South Thailand
A video is circling on social media of a group of desperate Rohingyas crowded onto a boat off South Thailand’s Ranong province. Over 200 people were on the boat, and 18 people died on the harrowing journey, a Rohingya aid coordinator told Thai PBS. The boat first left Bangladesh in late November. The aid coordinator, Rayid Ali, said the boat has…
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Railway bomb kills three in southern Thailand
Three maintenance workers were killed and four were injured by a bomb blast this morning on a railway in Songkhla province, southern Thailand. The workers were repairing the tracks after they were damaged by an explosion on Saturday which derailed and damaged a freight train but caused no injuries. At 12.50pm on Saturday, freight train 707 from Hat Yai in…
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Flood warning for 11 southern provinces
Southern Thailand has been soaked with rain over the past week. Now, the National Water Command Centre is warning 11 provinces of possible floods this coming weekend. They are expecting heavy rains from Thursday, December 8 through Sunday, December 11. Strong storms have been flickering power in some provinces in the south of Thailand, with high winds blowing debris and…
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Unexploded MK-82 bomb found in Songkhla forest
Rangers found an unexploded MK-82 bomb in the forest of Ton Nga Chang Wildlife Sanctuary in the southern province of Songkhla. The authorities believe the bomb was left over from the Communist insurgency in Thailand over 40 years ago. The Communist insurgency in Thailand was a guerilla war lasting from 1965 until 1983, fought mainly between the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) and…
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Thailand’s southern islands are reeling in tourists
South Thailand’s holiday hotspot islands are reeling in tourists once again. The islands of Koh Samui, Koh Tao, and Koh Pha Ngan have seen 2.3 million tourists arrive on their shores in the past 10 months, according to the director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)’s office for the islands. This has generated over 40 billion baht in revenue.…
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