Phuket News
Discover the latest news and updates from Thailand’s most famous and beautiful island, The Thaiger’s hometown, having previously operated as the Phuket Gazette.
Our team brings you breaking news, in-depth analysis, and exclusive stories from Phuket, covering everything from local politics and business to lifestyle and tourism. Learn about the island’s stunning beaches, vibrant nightlife, and thriving expat community, as well as keeping updated on events, and attractions.
The Thaiger is your ultimate guide to staying connected with Phuket’s ever-evolving landscape. To keep up with the most reliable news source on the island, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media.
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Sponsored How to choose the perfect family-friendly property in Phuket
Phuket has long attracted visitors from around the globe with its golden beach and lush green hills. Many come for a holiday and leave captivated, often deciding they want a piece of the island for themselves. That’s why, despite fluctuations...
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Phuket tour bus drivers caught in Patong Hill checkpoint drug blitz
Note: Since this story was posted, a representative from the tour company Pegas Touristik affirmed that no drivers associated with the company tested positive for drugs in the blitz. PHUKET: The new police and transport office safety checkpoint for buses about to cross over Patong Hill netted 16 drivers who tested positive for drugs in its first day of operation…
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Murder brings curfew for Myanmar workers in Patong
PHUKET: Patong police announced today that Myanmar workers living in Patong will be arrested if they are found outside of their camps after 10pm. The curfew is in response to the murder of a Thai man by a group of Myanmar nationals early Tuesday morning in Patong. “Construction operators typically keep the passports of their workers. If we stop workers…
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Chinese tourists safe after brakes fail on Phuket’s Patong Hill
PHUKET: The driver of a Phuket tour bus avoided a serious accident on Patong Hill this morning by running the bus off the road before driving down the steep slope on the east side of the hill.Bus driver Sutthichai Pohad was ferrying about 20 Chinese tourists from Patong to Phuket Town at about 8am when he realized the brakes were…
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Phuket Airport customs officers nail drug mule with B7mn of ya ice
PHUKET: Customs officers at Phuket International Airport on Tuesday arrested a drug mule attempting to smuggle 7 million baht of ya ice (crystal methamphetamine) from China into Phuket. The 37-year-old woman, Pornphat Wattanachaisen, was on a watchlist for possible involvement in drug smuggling when she departed Bangkok to China, said Phuket Airport Customs Director Montira Cherdchoo. “We learned that Ms…
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Vichit Bicycle Cup kicks off
PHUKET: This weekend will see the start of the Vichit Bicycle Cup 2014 tournament, which kicks off on Sunday, March 16. The competition aims to promote tourism in the area and encourage more people to use bicycles. On March 7, at the Suan Sriphunaat Park in Phuket, a press conference was held to announce the Cup and was hosted by…
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Special Report: Phuket’s stolen passports shine light on illegal migrant corridor to Europe
Special Report Passports stolen in Phuket that were used to board ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 have placed Phuket in the center of an international maelstrom. Thousands of passports are reported lost or stolen in Thailand each year, and the region is gaining a reputation as a gateway for international asylum seekers to reach Europe. The Phuket Gazette’s Saran Mitrarat…
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Shark killed off Phuket Beach raises online ire
PHUKET: Photos posted online of a foreigner killing a small shark at Kata Noi Beach prompted outrage, but the act was legal, a marine official said. The pictures, posted on the Go Eco Phuket Facebook page (click here) yesterday, showed a man in the act of killing the shark on a rock. The post read, “We just received these awful…
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30 cops for 30 gamblers in Phuket Town raid
PHUKET: Phuket and Bangkok police arrested more than 30 people for gambling on football in Phuket Town last night. About 30 officers took part in the raid at a shop near the Nimit Circle (also called the Seahorse Circle), said Phuket City Police Superintendent Sermphan Sirikong. “We went in at about 9pm and found more than 30 people either filling…
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Raging Phuket black market passport trade
PHUKET: Police have admitted they are powerless to prevent motorcycle and car rental operators from holding foreign tourists’ passports as collateral against potential damage to rented vehicles. The news comes as the island’s top police officers try to stymie the fallout from international news reports branding Phuket a key source for stolen passports in the wake of the mysterious disappearance…
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Phuket Sports: A fun-filled football function
PHUKET: Yesterday morning, March 13, the Palm House International School Rawai hosted a football skills clinic for their students, as well as a group of fellow students from the nearby Wat Sawang Arom School. About thirty students took part in the activities, which were led by Phuket FC players Ricarte Dos Santos Tales, Namchai Yongyuth, Alef Poh-ji and Wuttichai Sooksen.…
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Phuket Police go for the balls to unite Patong
PHUKET: Patong Police Superintendent Chiraphat Pochanaphan, ousted by the tuk-tuk blockade of Patong last week, is back and considering using ball sports, namely a football match, to unite competing factions in the busy resort town. Col Chiraphat quietly returned to work on Monday, less than a week after his abrupt transfer to stave off violence during a blockade of the…
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Phuket Police push Line app to combat passport thefts at motorbike rental shops
PHUKET: Patong Police yesterday recommended motorbike rental operators take photos of renters and their passports and upload them to Line, a smartphone application, in order to prevent passport theft. The initiative follows the discovery that two passengers aboard missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 had boarded with passports stolen in Phuket (story here), at least one of them from a shop…
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Local Phuket student could be ‘The Star’
PHUKET: A local Phuket student is battling it out in the last rounds of The Star, a popular Thai singing competition broadcast on nationwide television every weekend. Phuket Governor Maitri called on fellow Phuket residents to cast their votes in support of Natthawadee “Nong Nut” Dokkrathin, a student from Satree Phuket School, who is one of eight final contestants on…
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Phuket’s annual Battle of Thalang festival returns
PHUKET: The annual Battle of Thalang festival begins at Victory Memorial Field tonight, marking Phuket’s stand against Burmese invaders at the site 229 years ago. The Victory Memorial Field recently received a 26-million-baht makeover and welcomed the addition of 2.5-meter-tall statues cast in bronze honoring the Nine Heroes (story here). Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut this morning led a wreath-laying ceremony…
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Snake jumps queue for ID card at Phuket district office
PHUKET: A snake made its way into the ID card section of the Thalang District Office yesterday, causing people waiting in line and officers alike to run screaming from the building. “I saw the snake go into the ID card section, where a lot of people were queued,” said Chief Administrative Officer Sakorn Liponkate. “I shouted a warning and everyone…
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Phuket Red Cross launches March mobile donation mission
PHUKET: The Red Cross Society in Phuket has announced its upcoming mobile donation clinic schedule for the month of March in hopes of restoring essential blood stocks. “We currently only have 20 units of blood type A, 120 units of type B, 190 units of type O and 50 units of type AB,” said Chief Pornthip Rattajak of the Phuket…
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DNA test confirms body parts are of missing Phuket girl Nong Dear, 7
PHUKET: The human remains found in a Chalong pine forest last December are those of missing 7-year-old Nong Dear, police confirmed today. “The Institute of Forensic Medicine in Bangkok unofficially confirmed on Monday that the DNA of the body parts found in Chalong matches those of Nong Dear’s parents,” Capt Thada Sodarak of the Chalong Police told the Phuket Gazette.…
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Russian on motorbike kills Phuket security guard
PHUKET: A resort employee in Karon who was helping tourists cross the street was struck and killed by a Russian motorcyclist on Friday morning. Sayun Sarawaree, 37, a security guard with Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa, was stopping traffic on Patak Road West so that tourists could get to the beach, said Sub Lt Niphon Temsang of the Karon…
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Phuket Sports: Laguna reclaim top spot
PHUKET: Laguna remained undefeated and reclaimed top spot in the Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) Phuket cricket league by defeating The Village on Sunday, March 9 at the Alan Cooke Ground (ACG). Things started well for Laguna when they won the toss and chose to bat first, as most teams normally prefer to do. The extremely dry and hot conditions also…
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Tourist Police confirm round up of Phuket dive instructors
PHUKET: Tourist Police joined forces with the Chalong Police yesterday afternoon and took into custody more than 20 dive instructors as they disembarked from their respective dive tour boats at Chalong Pier. “I don’t think the Chalong Police pressed charges. To my knowledge, the dive shop staffers were taken to Chalong Police Station to have their work permits checked,” Urumporn…
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Unidentified body found off Phuket beach
PHUKET: Lifeguards stationed at the Karon Rescue Center, on Phuket’s west coast, recovered an unidentified body near Yanui Beach this afternoon. “The body was discovered a few kilometers offshore,” Kata-Karon chief lifeguard Uten Singsom told the Phuket Gazette. The remains had deteriorated extensively due to exposure in the sea, Mr Uten explained. “From the remains, our lifeguards believe it was…
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Phuket motorbike shop hands out wrong passport in return for a stolen one
PHUKET: Police investigating stolen passports linked to the missing Malaysian Flight MH370 questioned the owner of a Phuket motorbike rental shop from which one of the passports used to board the flight was stolen. Luigi Maraldi explained to the press yesterday that he filed a report to the Patong Police on July 25 last year confirming that his passport was…
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Third Naval Area Command calls off search for MH370
PHUKET: After three days of fruitless searching, the Third Naval Area Command, based in Phuket, will stop looking for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 this evening. “We’ve been working with navies from other countries since March 8, when the aircraft was reported missing,” Third Naval Area Commander Vice Admiral Tharathorn Khajitsuwan said this morning. “We were asked to search the…
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Phuket Police hunt for suspects involved in decapitation
PHUKET: Police are hunting for five men who allegedly beheaded their co-worker and dropped the severed head and body in the jungle near the San Chao Phor Suea Shrine on Patong Hill on Sunday night. The head of 21-year-old Myanmar national Wai Phyo Kyaw was found near a clump of banana trees. His decapitated body was discovered about two meters…
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Phuket Sports: The BMW Golf Cup International teed off today
PHUKET: Today marks the beginning of the BMW Golf Cup International at the Blue Canyon Country Club in Thalang. Amateur golf finalists from 50 countries will battle for international glory at the five-day tournament, which plays out from March 10 to 15. The contest is the culmination of about 100,000 players having teed off at 800 tournaments throughout 50 different…
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Eight candidates enter race for Phuket senator, one rejected
PHUKET: Eight candidates have registered to contest Phuket’s sole seat in the Senate in the national election for the upper house to be held on March 30. However, one application to enter the senatorial race was rejected by the Phuket Election Commission (PEC). “The application filed by Siripong Luangchawee was rejected because he resigned as a member of the Pheu…
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Phuket Police arrest drug mule with crystal meth, dealer escapes
PHUKET: Phuket Police on Friday arrested a drug courier with 950 grams of ya ice (crystal methamphetamine) and began a search for a drug dealer who fled from officers, leaving behind one kilogram of ya ice and a motorbike near Srisoonthorn Temple. A Nakhon Sri Thammarat inmate, Kee Honzaitong, tipped police off about members of a drug network transporting ya…
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Phuket tour boat owners fight illegal boat operators with new club
PHUKET: Island tour boat operators met in Phuket on Friday to discuss forming a club to help combat what they say is customer-poaching by illegally operated, foreign-owned companies. The group’s ire is focused mainly on Chinese and Russian companies that they claim are set up using a Thai nominee. “In the past, Chinese and Russian tour operators contacted us for…
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Phuket expat volunteers back on beat after misunderstanding, says Patong’s new top cop
PHUKET: Striking Region 8 International Volunteers are back to work after negotiations with police, announced Acting Patong Police Superintendent Sakchai Limcharoen. Col Sakchai told the Phuket Gazette this afternoon that the entire issue had stemmed from a misunderstanding. “They are all back on the force. Patong Police and the expat volunteers were patrolling together last night,” Col Sakchaisaid. “Even the…
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Video Report: Uninsured Phuket ship sunk by fire, owners estimate 5mn in losses
PHUKET: The wooden cargo ship that caught fire yesterday off Phuket’s east coast in Phang Nga Bay was not insured and represents a 5-million-baht loss, its owners said. One of the owners, Sompong Maikhaew, and three other men were on the ship when it caught fire, but jumped overboard and were safely rescued by a passing speedboat. “We left Koh…
Phuket is a province in the south of Thailand. Phuket's beaches face the Andaman Sea allowing the west coast beaches fantastic sunsets right throughout the year. If you're looking for news in Phuket, go to thethaiger.com/phuket Or follow our instant news in our Facebook pages.
The good news is that Phuket is famous for its foodie scene with an enormously diverse range of local and international foods - Phuket and southern favorites, street food along with international choices catering for the 12 million visitors to the island each year. Thaiger follows Phuket news and information 24 hours a day with regular updates.
Phuket is only 'just' an island with a 300 metre bridge linking it to Thailand's mainland. We're always reporting in the news that the channel beneath is frequently dredged to maintain Phuket's status as an island. On the other side of Sarasin Bridge is the Province of Phang Nga.
Getting to Phuket is easy as the island has land, air and sea connections. Phuket is also used as a take-off point for local island trips as Thailand's largest island is surrounded by over 30 pristine islands. Koh Phi Phi and the famous Maya Bay are always in the news and would be the best known of the island's just off Phuket's shores.
Phuket is an island and a province. It's the largest island in Thailand – 48 km north to south, 21 km east to west.
It's about 20% smaller, in area, than Singapore but much less densely populated. Whilst the island nation of Singapore boasts a population of nearly 6 million, Phuket has a permanent population of around 400-450,000 (but varies a lot with the influx of tourists and a workforce that is always changing). Most of Phuket remains jungle and tropical rainforest despite an acceleration of development over the past 20 years.
Unlike some of Thailand's other popular islands (that are in the Gulf of Thailand), the news is that Phuket is located in the Andaman Sea.
Phuket is 878 km north of the equator.
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