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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  • Dead dugong, dolphin found off southern Thai beaches

    Dead dugong, dolphin found off southern Thai beaches

    PHOTO: Manoch Wongsuryrat A three-metre long dugong has been found dead off the coast of Trang in southern Thailand. The total number of dead dugong found this year has reached seven, according to the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources when they spoke to Thai PBS. Fishermen found the mammal and towed it ashore for veterinarians to examine. The dugong…

  • Mariam the baby dugong ‘goes live’ soon

    Mariam the baby dugong ‘goes live’ soon

    PHOTO: Hannaret Hripai and Srichai Anuraktichai Officials started installing six CCTVs along the coast of Koh Libong in Trang province today so that netizens will be able to monitor the life of Mariam, the baby dugong that was found washed up on a Krabi Beach in May. Residents and visitors will now be able to ‘bay sit’ (or dugong sit)…

  • 2 killed, 4 others injured in south Thailand bombings and shootings

    2 killed, 4 others injured in south Thailand bombings and shootings

    PHOTO: Thai PBS A Thai para-military ranger and a local villager were killed, along with three other rangers and another villager who were wounded in two related incidents in the forests of Yala, southern Thailand, this morning. A team of para-military rangers was dispatched to the forest in Ban Kuwing, Village 6 of Tambon Baroh after they received a report…

  • 89 year old Trang grandmother raped by 71 year old neighbour

    89 year old Trang grandmother raped by 71 year old neighbour

    PHOTOS: Daily News A 71 year old man in Trang has been arrested after confessing to raping an 89 year old neighbour. Daily News reports that Palian police arrived to find that the woman’s granddaughter, Naphawan, had already taken matters into her own hands and beaten up Yap Chaiphak. She admitted to police that she had hit Yap repeatedly with…

  • Two suspects in custody after Surat Thani police officer killed during drug sting

    Two suspects in custody after Surat Thani police officer killed during drug sting

    PHOTO: The car that ran over Pol Sen Sgt Maj Poonkrit Buakaeo was found on Friday morning – Supapong Chaolan The body of a police officer, killed on duty during a drug sting in Surat Thani on Thursday evening, was repatriated to his home province of Nakhon Si Thammarat for religious ceremonies yesterday. Meanwhile two suspects accused of killing the officer…

  • Manhunt for drug suspect who ran over policeman in Surat Thani

    Manhunt for drug suspect who ran over policeman in Surat Thani

    PHOTO: ThaiRath Surat Thani police are hunting for a drug suspect who allegedly ran over and killed a policeman while fleeing arrest in Ban Ta Khun district, west of Surat Thani, last night. The deputy provincial police chief says 46 year old Pol Sen Sgt Maj Poonkrit Buakaew was killed as he was shooting the tyres of a car that was…

  • A pair of 200 year old trees in Chumpon on Thailand’s National Heritage List

    A pair of 200 year old trees in Chumpon on Thailand’s National Heritage List

    PHOTO: Star2.com The Thai Ministry of Culture has declared a Durian tree and one Takien Thong tree, both about 200 years old, in Chumpon, to be part of the country’s national heritage. Culture Minister Veera Rotepojanarat went to Patoh district to preside over the “ordination” ceremony for the two old trees in Tambon Patoh. The ceremony also featured an exhibition,…

  • Mariam Live – the Trang baby dugong show

    Mariam Live – the Trang baby dugong show

    Mariam LIVE. Coming soon to your laptop or smartphone. The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) is preparing to live stream the daily life of the orphaned baby dugong Mariam currently being nursed at Koh Libong in Trang province. Mariam, now six months old and weighing 30 kilograms, is the latest internet star after being rescued in Krabi on…

  • Van driver and nine passengers injured in Songkhla van accident

    Van driver and nine passengers injured in Songkhla van accident

    A passenger van driver and nine passengers have been injured after the vehicle careered off the Asian Highway in Songkhla around lunchtime today. When emergency responders arrived they found the van driver unconscious behind the wheel. All nine passengers had been injured. Three of them, one with a broken arm, were taken to the Narakin Hospital. The incident happened just after…

  • Marium, the Trang dugong, washed up on Libong beach

    Marium, the Trang dugong, washed up on Libong beach

    Six month old dugong, Marium, was released back in the sea early yesterday after she washed up onto the beach for a second time in Trang’s Libong Island. Marium was found on Krabi’s Ao Tung Beach on April 29 after getting lost and separated from her mother.and taken to Trang to recover. Dugongs are classed as “vulnerable to extinction” and…

  • Unidentified body found floating in Ranong lake

    Unidentified body found floating in Ranong lake

    The body of an unidentified Thai man has been found floating in a small Ranong lake this morning. The body, without any obvious signs of identification, was found on the lake in Moo 2 village in Tambon Bang Bon in Muang district at 8.50am. Police say the man appeared to be around 40 to 50 years old without any identification…

  • 35 year old arrested over Pattani Big C bombing and other insurgency-related crimes

    35 year old arrested over Pattani Big C bombing and other insurgency-related crimes

    PHOTO: Remnants of a car bomb that exploded in front of a Big C in Pattani on May 9,2017 A suspect has been arrested by Thai security forces in Songkhla’s Thepa district. The man is believed to be a wanted insurgent – the subject of four arrest warrants in relation to violent incidents in the deep South. He’s been identified…

  • Police investigating possible Thai links to Rohingya boatpeople marooned on Rawi Island

    Police investigating possible Thai links to Rohingya boatpeople marooned on Rawi Island

    PHOTO: Thai PBS 65 Rohingya were discovered yesterday on Koh Rawi off the coast of Satun province, north-west of Malaysia’s Langkawi island, after their boat’s engine broke down on its way, presumably to Malaysia. One Thai national was identified amongst the group. Authorities are questioning the man into possible involvement in human trafficking. The boat was found 500 metres away from…

  • Fishermen say they will protest fishing bans off Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand

    Fishermen say they will protest fishing bans off Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand

    Fishermen in Nakhon Si Thammarat are warning of mass protests against the provincial governor if he doesn’t act and allow them to fish legally in the seas off the provincial coast. The south Thailand fishermen say they’re being harassed by fishery officials. 500 local fishermen gathered yesterday to air their grievances to the newly elected Palang Pracharat MP for the…

  • 21 undocumented Burmese migrants found in Songkhla, alleged Thai trafficker arrested

    21 undocumented Burmese migrants found in Songkhla, alleged Thai trafficker arrested

    FILE PHOTO: Malay Mail A Thai man has been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle 21 undocumented Burmese migrants from Thailand’s south across the border into Malaysia. A resort in Tambon Patong of Songkhla’s Hat Yai district was searched by soldiers and police earlier today (Monday) and discovered five Burmese men and two women in two of the rooms. Their account…

  • Little Marium growing up in a Dugong Thai nursery

    Little Marium growing up in a Dugong Thai nursery

    Marium, an orphaned baby dugong found along the Krabi shore two months ago, will remain in the care of a dugong nursery on Koh Libong in Trang for at least six more months. ‘Marium’ means ‘beautiful woman of the sea’. Chaiyapruek Weerawong, head of the Koh Libong Wildlife Preserve, says the female dugong would then be released in the open…

  • 17 survive as minivan flips over in Phattalung, southern Thailand

    17 survive as minivan flips over in Phattalung, southern Thailand

    PHOTOS: Pattaung Rescue 17 people have survived after a minivan flipped over in Phattalung in Thailand’s south. Phattalung rescue workers were notified of the incident on the Phattalung –Trang Road in Phattalung province this afternoon. The minivan was travelling from Songkhla to Trang at the time. Emergency responders arrived to find the overturned minivan in the middle of the road.…

  • Baby dugong ‘Marium’ being cared for in Trang

    Baby dugong ‘Marium’ being cared for in Trang

    PHOTOS: DMCR A baby dugong, which was found lost in Krabi two months ago, has been given the name ‘Marium’ and continues to be cared for at a dugong nursery in Trang. The baby dugong, found on a Krabi beach, was taken back to its home area in Trang, southern Thailand, on April 30. Read more about the wayward baby…

  • Security stepped up for the end of Ramadan in Songkhla, Thailand

    Security stepped up for the end of Ramadan in Songkhla, Thailand

    FILE PHOTO Police and troops are stepping up security in Songkhla and the southern province, especially the town of Hat Yai, ahead of the Eid al-Fitr festival – the end of the annual Ramadan – tomorrow (Wednesday). Today is the last day of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. A security source said intelligence agencies believed Muslim insurgents would…

  • Airports of Thailand open bidding for new duty free contracts at three airports

    Airports of Thailand open bidding for new duty free contracts at three airports

    Airports of Thailand (AoT) says they will finalise the bidding process to announce who will manage the commercial areas at three provincial airports – Phuket, Had Yai and Chiang Mai – on June 10. King Power Duty Free has had a stranglehold on the duty free concession areas of the country’s four main airports but are having to bid for…

  • 30 False killer whales sighted of Koh Tao – VIDEO

    30 False killer whales sighted of Koh Tao – VIDEO

    PHOTO: DMCR VIDEO: Ban’s Diving Resort (Official Fan Page) About 30 of false killer whales sighted off Koh Tao, Surat Thani over the weekend. The Department of Marine and Coast Resources reported that they were notified from Ban’s Diving tours operator on Koh Tao that that they were on a speedboat with tourists just off the coast of Koh Tao.…

  • Songkhla bus crashes, seven injured

    Songkhla bus crashes, seven injured

    PHOTO: Siam Rath News Seven passengers have been injured after a Phuket to Hat Yai bus skidded into a ditch and crashed on its side in Songkhla’s Rattaphum district early today. The accident happened on the Hat Yai-bound Asia highway Tambon Khuan Tai at 3am this morning. The bus was laying on its side with around 20 passengers trapped inside. Seven passengers…

  • Suspect who killed ex-wife’s new husband in Phattalung, arrested at Phuket checkpoint

    Suspect who killed ex-wife’s new husband in Phattalung, arrested at Phuket checkpoint

    A suspect who killed his ex-wife’s new husband in Phattalung last Sunday has now been arrested at the Phuket checkpoint at the top of the island. 32 year old Ms Rattana Nookong, Kringkrai Kotchapan’s ex-wife, sustained injuries from Kringkrai’s gun shots. Kriengkrai also shot and killed 40 years old Mr Sarawut Srinoon, Ms Rattana’s new husband in Phattalung on May…

  • Villagers taken in under martial law for questioning over Yala shoot-out, Southern Thailand

    Villagers taken in under martial law for questioning over Yala shoot-out, Southern Thailand

    PHOTO: Charoon Thongnual Security officials have interrogated 18 people living near the site of this week’s clash between soldiers and suspected insurgents in Yala’s Yaha district. “They were brought in for questioning under martial law as authorities intend to go after the unidentified gunmen in Monday’s clash,” a source said yesterday. The Nation reports that the gunfight lasted several hours…

  • OrBorTor president shot dead in Yala

    OrBorTor president shot dead in Yala

    PHOTOS: Work Point News An OrBorTor president in Yala’s Raman district has been fatally shot while riding his motorcycle home last night. Police say 55 year old Sama-ae Sama was shot on a main road in Moo 2 village in Tambon Tha Thong at 8.15pm. He was rushed to the Raman Hospital but died later. Police said Sama-ae was returning home…

  • 14 smuggled Burmese migrants rescued and alleged trafficker arrested

    14 smuggled Burmese migrants rescued and alleged trafficker arrested

    PHOTO: Bang Klam, Songkhla Immigration police in Songkhla have arrested an alleged Burmese human trafficker and rescued 14 smuggled Burmese from a rented house in Bang Klam district. Police arrested the alleged ring leader, 29 year old Aung Chanai, not far from the rented house on the Asia highway in Moo 4 village in Tambon Tha Chang where he allegedly…

  • Woman killed, nine injured in seven-vehicle pileup in Nakhon Si Thammarat

    Woman killed, nine injured in seven-vehicle pileup in Nakhon Si Thammarat

    A woman has died and nine others injured in a pileup involving four pick-up trucks, a sedan and two motorcycles on a road in Nakhon Si Thammarat this morning. Police say the accident happened at 9am on the Nakhon Si Thammarat-Pak Phanang road in front of the 17th regional office of the Government Saving Bank in Tambon Pak Nakhon, Muang…

  • Ouch! Man falls from mango tree, ends up with metal rod through his testicles

    Ouch! Man falls from mango tree, ends up with metal rod through his testicles

    PHOTO: Daily News Daily News reports that an iron rod, sitting under a mango tre,e had gone right through a man’s testicles after he fell from a mango tree in Nakorn Si Thammarat yesterday. The poor man, Piyapong, was fighting extreme pain as friends tried to keep him in consciousness with smelling salts. Meanwhile, according to the report, the Tai…

  • Four southern islands to be closed to tourists during monsoon

    Four southern islands to be closed to tourists during monsoon

    PHOTO: Koh Kradan Four islands in the Haad Chao Mai National Park in Trang, southern Thailand, will be closed to tourists for four months starting June 1. The chief of the Haad Chao Mai national park, Narong Kong-iad, says that access to the park will be denied to tourist from June 1 to September 30 for “the nature to rehabilitate…

  • Co-ordinated pipe bomb attacks in Yala injure five

    Co-ordinated pipe bomb attacks in Yala injure five

    FILE PHOTO Five Army troops and rangers have been injured after southern insurgents threw pipe bombs. Security officials say the incidents happened at three locations in Yala in what appears to be a co-ordinated incident. The commander of Muang Yala police station, Pol Col Narawee Binwaearong, says two insurgents on a motorcycle rode to a security checkpoint on the Siroros…