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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  • Fishing worker reported hanged on returning boat

    Fishing worker reported hanged on returning boat

    FILE PHOTO The skipper of a fishing boat has reported to police that one of his workers allegedly hanged himself on the boat as it returned to Songkhla fishing pier last night (Monday). But the wife of the dead man, 37 year old Anucha Kahapanna, doubts whether her husband committed suicide and is asking police to investigate whether it was…

  • Surat Thani oyster farmstay burns down

    Surat Thani oyster farmstay burns down

    PHOTO: Daily News The Sinmana Farmstay oyster farm and resort has burned down after staff unwittingly sprayed the entire property with an accelerant to keep away mosquitos on Friday. Sinmana Farmstay is located in the Kanchanadit District, Surat Thani, and was popular with tour groups who stay at the resort and caught oysters during their trip there. According to staff at…

  • Eating your way around Songkhla

    Eating your way around Songkhla

    by Pattarawadee Saengmanee – The Nation Weekend As we come in for landing at Hat Yai International Airport, I see clear sky reflected in the azure waters of the Gulf of Thailand. Despite the weather App warnings, the sun was out. Sightseeing is first on the agenda though and after a pleasant 40-minute drive from the airport to Songkhla Old…

  • Pattani Big C bombers sentenced to death

    Pattani Big C bombers sentenced to death

    FILE PHOTO: The Nation The Pattani Provincial Court yesterday sentenced Su-ai-mee Sama-ae and Sama-ae Mamah to death for their role in the 2017 Big C department store bomb attack that injured 61 people, including children, and caused millions of baht worth of property damage. Here’s the original story of the bomb blast HERE. The attack on May 9, 2017, took…

  • Train hits car in Hat Yai

    Train hits car in Hat Yai

    A driver has been injured after his car was hit by a train in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district yesterday morning (Wednesday). The Bangkok-Padang Bezar train hit the car at a rail crossing in Ban Lop Moom in Tambon Patong. The car driver, Aeb Meekaew, was critically injured and taken to the Hat Yai Hospital. The 58 year old train driver,…

  • District in Thailand’s south declared Special Control Zones

    District in Thailand’s south declared Special Control Zones

    Special report from Chularat Saengpassa – The Nation “We have no idea what will happen next. The soldiers have been keeping a close eye on people going in and out of the village.” Locals in parts of Pattani’s Nong Chik district now live in fear due to the strong military presence in their hometown. “We are scared and don’t want to…

  • Major ‘ice’ haul intercepted in the South

    Major ‘ice’ haul intercepted in the South

    FILE PHOTO An enormous haul of 280 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, commonly known as “ice”, was found hidden in a pickup truck that was spotted abandoned in an oil palm plantation in Satun’s Manang district. Supoj Sirisaeng, an assistant chief of Tambon Nikhom Pattana, alerted police to check the vehicle after it was found in the plantation. The pickup was taken…

  • Warning for boats going to sea in Phuket

    Warning for boats going to sea in Phuket

    The Phuket Marine Office has made an official announcement for boats to be “careful when going to sea until September 18, due to Typhoon Mangkhut. The announcement was issued yesterday (September 12) stating that “the Typhoon Mangkhut in the Pacific Ocean is likely to move through The Philippines and Taiwan during the period from September 14-15.” “It will then move…

  • Three arrested in Pattani with alleged home-made bomb

    Three arrested in Pattani with alleged home-made bomb

    PHOTO: Nine hurt in bomb blast in Pattani in 2015 – The Star Police and rangers have arrested three men in Pattani this morning (Saturday) after they were allegedly found with a homemade bomb in a gas cylinder. Police and rangers were patrolling a rubber plantation in Ban Lan Chang village in Tambon Taping, Sai Buri district and spotted two motorcycles.…

  • Trang councillor arrested over roadwork attacks

    Trang councillor arrested over roadwork attacks

    A member of the Trang Provincial Administration Council and another Trang resident were brought in for questioning to a military camp yesterday morning (Wednesday). Police say it’s part of the investigation into a case in which unknown assailants burned two road construction machines on the night of July 14 and opened fired on its workers on July 16. The 56…

  • Police on the hunt for two ‘Malay-speaking’ assailants in Songkhla

    Police on the hunt for two ‘Malay-speaking’ assailants in Songkhla

    Following up from the shooting story in Songkhla yesterday… Police in the South have released a sketch of what witnesses described as a “Malay-speaking gunman” after an elderly Buddhist couple were gunned down at their house and furniture shop in Songkhla’s Thepha district yesterday. Read the story from yesterday HERE. The shop house belonging to 68 year old Uthit Chanrat…

  • Police suspect insurgents involved in double shooting in Songkhla

    Police suspect insurgents involved in double shooting in Songkhla

    by Santiparp Ramasut An elderly couple have been shot dead at their furniture shop in Songkhla’s Thepa district this afternoon (Sunday) and police suspect it might be linked to the insurgency in the southern provinces. Police say the shop was among 10 locations of arson or bomb attacks targeted by insurgents back in 2013. An unknown attacker, or attackers, stormed…

  • Arson attack on Yala electricity building and vehicles

    Arson attack on Yala electricity building and vehicles

    Five alleged insurgents have raided an office of the Provincial Electricity Authority in Yala and set fire to the building and two vehicles just after midnight. Police said the attackers raided the PEA office in Ban Bannang Dama in Tambon Bannang Dama of Yala’s Kabang district at 12:30am (Thursday) and tied up six officials leaving them them at the rear…

  • Trang Moon Festival 2018 – cultural shows, food stalls, contests

    Trang Moon Festival 2018 – cultural shows, food stalls, contests

    The ‘Trang Moon Festival’ has long been observed by Chinese people in Thung Yao in Trang province’s Palian district. The 2018 Trang Moon Festival is scheduled for September 22-24. Through the staging of this traditional festival, the Chinese commemorate the fight for their nation against the Mongols. Trang province was one of Thailand’s trading ports and trade with the Chinese…

  • Singaporean’s house catches fire in Hat Yai

    Singaporean’s house catches fire in Hat Yai

    PHOTOS: Manager Online A fire has partially destroyed a two storey luxury house occupied by a Singaporean in Hat Yai. Manager online reports that the fire took control of the house in the City Park housing estate on Phonpichai Road in Hat Yai, Songkhla. The Mittaparb Samakkee Hat Yai rescue foundation arrived at the scene, followed by firefighters from the…

  • Seaman dies in hotel after taking Viagra

    Seaman dies in hotel after taking Viagra

    A 58 year old man who worked on fishing boats was found dead in a Sichon, Nakhon Si Thammarat hotel room. The Sichon station chief Pol Col Chokedee Rakwatanapong told Sanook that the man’s name was Suthep, a widower who was often away fishing at sea for extended periods. Sanook reports that Suthep was dead on the floor in the…

  • Three year old suffocates in Pattani school van

    Three year old suffocates in Pattani school van

    WARNING: This story may be distressing to some readers Pattani police have charged a school van driver after a three year old girl was forgotten and locked in a vehicle at a school and subsequently died of suffocation. 23 year old Ahama Saro-Eng was summoned by police on this morning (Thursday) to face a charge of negligence causing death after…

  • Songkhla hospital saves 78 year old British man

    Songkhla hospital saves 78 year old British man

    The Prince of Songkhla University Hospital has performed special surgery valued around 1 million baht to save the life of a retired Briitish naval officer for humanitarian reasons and is organising donations to send him back to the UK. 78 year old Kenneth George Smith told reporters from his hospital bed that he appreciated the help from the Songklanagarind Hospital,…

  • Peaceful Pattani – the other side of the southern province

    Peaceful Pattani – the other side of the southern province

    By Pattarawadee Saengmanee, The Nation Weekend The former capital of the ancient Langkasuka Kingdom, Pattani province in Thailand’s far south has traditionally been feted for its multiculturalism, though sadly the ongoing violence has kept it well off the tourist map for more than a decade. But his southern province bordered by Narathiwat, Yala, and Songkhla has plenty to offer the…

  • Bomb suspects arrested in Pattani following two investigations

    Bomb suspects arrested in Pattani following two investigations

    PHOTO: Thai PBS Thai PBS reports that military and police officers have arrested two men suspected of involvement in the bombing of ATM machines in Pattani’s in May this year. Soldiers were sent to search two targets in Tambon Khlong Mai of Yarang district this morning. The first target was a house at Ban Chalong where 28 year old Malawi…

  • Father and mother found in Trang murder-suicide

    Father and mother found in Trang murder-suicide

    Two Trang parents dropped their children off with a relative and then drove away. Not long after police found the two dead in an apparent murder-suicide. TNA reports that two were allegedly arguing over extra-marital relationships and jealousies. They left the children with an older sister while they drove off to sort out their differences. Police from the Huay Yort station…

  • Great southern comforts – Narathiwat

    Great southern comforts – Narathiwat

    by Pattarawadee Saengmanee The southern province of Narathiwat is a great place to chill, unspoilt by mass tourism and full of southern surprises. Narathiwat shares a border with Malaysia. A stone’s throw from the Narathiwat airport are the white sands of Ban Ton Beach where I stretch out while my media friends tuck into a Southern-style lunch in Chulabhorn marine camp’s…

  • Trang shipping container retrieval will resume tomorrow

    Trang shipping container retrieval will resume tomorrow

    The Trang Harbour Office says the operation to retrieve 16 containers that fell off a cargo ship in the sea off Trang province would resume again tomorrow (Monday). Commander Chatkul Wanitchanat, director of the Trang Harbour Office, says the operator of the MV.NP Love Gistic 2 ship could not find a crane on the barge to pull the containers out…

  • Army sergeant shot dead in Narathiwat

    Army sergeant shot dead in Narathiwat

    More trouble in Thailand’s deep south today after an Army sergeant was shot dead while riding to work on his motorbike in Narathiwat this morning (Tuesday). Pol Colonel Krissana Pattanacharoen, deputy spokesman of the Royal Thai Police, reports that 26 year old Sergeant Patanachai Suree was shot twice in the back while riding his motorcycle on a road in Moo…

  • Boom Boom on the border

    Boom Boom on the border

    PHOTO: The attractions of Thailand’s southern border town usually become apparent after sunset On one side of the Thai/Malaysian border is Sungai Golok, on the Malaysian side it’s the town of Rantau Panjang. The two towns are separated by the Golok River as well as decades of furious fighting between Muslim separatists who want to reclaim some of the southern…