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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Travelling in Thailand is peak during April if you are looking for a real taste of summer. With high temperatures, amazing beaches, and exciting events, April is an amazing time to visit the country as a whole. Due to the...
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Missing fisherman’s body found in sea off Nakhon Si Thammarat
2 days ago a local fisherman went missing. Today, his body has been located floating in the ocean in the Khanom district, an area in the southern province Nakhon Si Thammarat. His family has positively identified the body as belonging to 57 year old Sang Tenphusa. They say he was an experienced angler. Reportedly, Sang had gone out fishing off…
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Songkhla officials investigate pricey street lamps
Officials in Hat Yai, a city in the southern province of Songkhla, are investigating whether they paid too much money for street lamps. Reportedly, this the third such allegation made toward a local administration in Thailand… This month. The new Hat Yai mayor, Sakhon Thongmunee, has ordered a panel to be established after he got the news that an administrative…
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More details uncovered in billionaire couple’s Koh Tao death
Details are emerging on the tragic drowning death of a billionaire hotel owner and his wife in Koh Tao last week as police investigate further. Along with a more detailed picture of the events of the day, a few inconsistencies emerged from the original information as the story broke, including a time gap between the first shouts of trouble were…
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Burmese migrants headed toward Malaysia arrested in Songkhla
Police arrest a group of Burmese migrants and an alleged guide from Myanmar in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district. Officers say the guide was leading the migrants from Moulmein, a city on Myanmar’s western coast, then across the Thai border to the southern province Ranong, headed toward Malaysia where they had jobs lined up. The migrants allegedly told police that they…
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UPDATE: Billionaire couple found dead at bottom of Koh Tao resort pool
The owner of a 5 star hotel in Phuket and his wife were found dead at the bottom of their hotel swimming pool on the island of Koh Tao on Friday afternoon. Police received the initial report at 4.45pm on Friday. The island off the Surat Thani province coast has gained notoriety after a string of suspicious and sensationalised deaths…
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Police arrest suspect who allegedly sold assault rifles stolen from military base
Officers in Thailand’s Deep South have arrested a man for allegedly selling assault rifles that were stolen from a military base in Narathiwat, a province by the Malaysian border with ongoing violence from the religious separatist insurgency. 6 out of the 26 AK102 assault rifles stolen from the the 4th Army Area base have been found. Earlier reports said 28 assault…
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Investigation over Hat Yai woman’s death after vaccine
An investigation has begun into the death of a woman in Hat Yai who died 2 weeks after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine to see if the death was related to the jab. A friend had suggested the possibility of a negative reaction due to the birth control pills the woman was taking combined with the vaccine, as blood clotting is…
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More assault rifles missing from arms depots in Narathiwat
Police suspect insurgents stole at least 37 assault rifles from armories in 5 districts in the Deep South province Narathiwat, which borders Malaysia and is prone to violence due to the religious separatist insurgency. Police have been checking the stock of each arms depot in the province. On May 18, police reported that 28 AK102s were missing from the 2nd Narathiwat…
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Over 2 dozen assault rifles missing from military base in Narathiwat
A military base in the deep south province of Narathiwat, discovered 28 AK-102 automatic rifles were missing. The rifles were first noticed missing on May 18 from the 2nd Narathiwat Territorial Defence Company, located in tambon Kamphu. The next day Mayusor Kudae, the assistant chief, filed a complaint with local police against those whom he believed were responsible for the…
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Southern Thailand: Wet weather forecast from tropical cyclone Yaas
Heavy rain to very heavy rain is forecast for Southern Thailand from today until the end of the week. The rain, and the bad weather, is coming from the north-moving Tropical Cyclone “Yaas”, which is currently situated over the Bay of Bengal, south of Bangladesh and heading for landfall on the Indian coast. “Yaas” is heading in a North/Northwesterly direction…
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Villages in southern Thailand closed off due to cases of South African variant
Health officials in the southern province of Narathiwat have sealed off 9 villages after 3 confirmed cases of the Covid-19 variant first detected in South Africa. Opas Karnkawinpong from the Disease Control Department says the villages in the Tak Bai district have been closed off to prevent the virus spreading further in the province. The district sits across the Kolok…
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Australian arrested in southern Thailand on suspicion of international criminal activity
Officers from the Royal Thai Armed Forces have arrested an Australian national in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat on suspicion of international criminal activity. 47 year old Samuel James Norton Cook was arrested when his Toyota car was stopped in the Nai Muang sub-district on Monday night. Security force officers cooperating with immigration officials and the local police…
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Norwegian-flagged ship with 6 Covid-19 infections off Songkla
A Norwegian-flagged ship is currently floating off the coast of Songkla in the south of Thailand with 6 crew members infected with Covid-19. The offshore support vessel is named the Boa Deep C and is currently anchored near Ko Nu Island and awaiting further instructions. A spokesman for the Thai Maritime Enforcement Command Centre confirmed that the boat has been…
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Bizarre final calls of 2 Southern insurgents killed in standoff
The bizarre final moments are coming to light of 2 insurgents in the south of Thailand that were killed in a standoff after shooting a member of the Thai paramilitary forces. The pair shot the soldier and then retreated to a shack made of corrugated metal while security forces tried to convince them to surrender. But during that time the…
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Suspected insurgent killed in gunfire exchange with rangers in Thailand’s deep south
A suspected insurgent was shot and killed in a gunfire exchange with Thai rangers in Narathawit, a province in Thailand’s deep south by the Malaysian border plagued with violence from the religious separatist insurgency. 2 other men were arrested after the clash with rangers in the Bacho district this morning. Another suspected insurgent is on the run. Rangers got a…
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Man struck and killed by freight train just 2 days after being released from prison
Just 2 days after being released from prison, a 34 year old man was struck and killed by a freight train in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district yesterday. Police suspect the man intentionally ran onto the tracks in front of the moving train as it was leaving the Hat Yai railway station about 300 metres away and headed toward the Bang…
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Thailand’s Southern Insurgency – who’s fighting who?
Trouble in the ‘south’. Attacks against civilians and rangers. Insurgents attack Thai soldiers – the sorts of headlines that people have read about Thailand’s southern conflict for the past 70 years or so. Thaiger readers may wonder who’s fighting who, and why. The area has been coined the ‘deep south’ or the ‘restive south’ and has become, statistically, a more…
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Locals threaten to burn hall if converted to field hospital
Citing fears of Covid-19 spreading, terrified locals threatened to burn down a Nakhon Si Thammarat conference hall authorities were preparing as a possible field hospital. The hall in the Muang district was one of several locations provincial authorities were readying as potential makeshift medical care facilities if the Covid-19 outbreak worsens. As of now, the governor chose 3 sites at…
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Hat Yai’s Kim Yong market closed after trader infected with Covid
Thailand’s southern city of Hat Yai’s Kim Yong market is closed after a trader there became infected with Covid-19. The market, popular with both foreigners and Thais, has been closed for 3 days for disinfecting. The market, a major tourist landmark in the heart of the city, is closed until April 30. The market sells fruit, snacks, clothing and flowers.…
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Former negotiator says peace in Thailand’s deep south can be reached with ongoing discussions
With the ongoing violence from the religious separatist insurgency in Thailand’s deep south, a former member of the Thai negotiating team says the discussions between the government and Malay-Muslim dissidents need to continue to bring peace and unity. The Southern provinces Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat near Malaysia have been plagued with violence for years. Since the separatist movement in Thailand’s…
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Suspected insurgent shot and killed by rangers after bomb attack in Narathiwat
Rangers in Thailand’s deep south shot and killed a suspected insurgent and arrested 2 others after an attack at a defence volunteer outpost. The southern province Narathiwat, which borders Malaysia, has been plagued with violence from the religious separatist insurgency with ongoing reports of roadside bomb explosions, as well as armed and sometimes fatal clashes with rangers. Yesterday, police in…
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Koh Kood closed from today until May 1 after 2 hotel employees contract Covid
Koh Kood, an island in Thailand’s southeastern Trat Province, is closing as of today after 2 hotel workers were found to be infected with Covid-19. The island will close until May 1 as a safety precaution. A hotel bartender was the first to register a positive test for the virus, and, after tests on other employees, another infection was found.…
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UPDATED: 1.1 million baht of gold necklaces stolen in Hat Yai
UPDATE: A man is now in custody for the robbery of 1.1 million baht worth of gold necklaces in Hat Yai yesterday morning. Pvt Ukrit Thongsomsri, a 24 year old naval deserter from the Songkla naval bank was identified and taken into custody at a house in tambon Khuan Lang in Hat Yai. The man allegedly confessed and showed police…
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100+ Covid-19 infections cancels all prison visits in Thailand’s south
After a small Covid-19 outbreak reported yesterday, the Corrections Department has now cancelled all prison visits from tomorrow through May 5, after testing revealed more than 100 people infected within the prison systems in Narathiwat, a border province in the south of Thailand, and Surat Thani. Originally 2 prisoners in Narathiwat Central Prison were confirmed to have Covid-19 Friday, with…
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Boy killed by lightning strike in Surat Thani, 5 others injured
A 12 year old boy was killed by a lightning strike while he was playing football at a field in Southern Thailand’s Surat Thani. 5 other children were also injured from a bolt of lightning and were rushed to the Surat Thani Hospital. Heavy rain had just cleared up and the boys were playing football when lightning struck the middle of…
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Roadside bomb explodes in Yala, injuring policeman and volunteer
A roadside bomb in Thailand’s southern Yala province, is being blamed for injuring a tourist policeman and a police volunteer. The bomb exploded, causing shrapnel to hit the pair while they were driving through Bannang Sata district at around 8pm. The pair was travelling on Road 410, the Yala-Betong route, when the bomb went off, hitting their pickup truck and…
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Bombs found in stolen truck behind police station in Yala
Police in Yala, one of Thailand’s 3 southern border provinces, are investigating after diffusing a bomb they found in a stolen delivery truck behind a police station. They say the truck was stolen by holding the driver, Baihakee Longluwa, of Kerry Express, at gunpoint. The armed men allegedly pushed Baihakee inside of a house, tied up his hands, and left…
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Police officer’s son caught on camera firing shots at Thai restaurant
The son of a local police officer and 2 other men were caught on camera firing shots and pointing guns at employees at Thai barbeque restaurant in the southern province Trang. Surveillance camera footage shows the men parking a pickup truck nearby and the man, identified as the police officer’s son, holding a gun and then shooting it at the…
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2 killed, 1 injured in early morning Songkhla car crash
2 men were killed and 1 was injured in an early morning accident after their car rear-ended a container truck in Thailand’s southern province of Songkhla. The crash occurred at 12:30am in Rattaphum district at the Khuha intersection on the main highway in tambon Khuan Ru, according to the district’s deputy investigation chief. The car, a Honda City, with Bangkok…
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Transport Ministry to decide location of new southern land bridge by June
Thailand’s Transport Minister says the location of the much-discussed southern land bridge will be confirmed by June. Saksayam Chidchob says the bridge will provide a more convenient option for shipping goods between the Middle East and the Pacific region. According to a Bangkok Post report, the government is reviewing various locations in the province of Chumphon on the Gulf of…
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