Bangkok News

Bangkok news, politics, business, crime, and nightlife—stay updated with breaking stories, events, and expat updates from Thailand’s capital. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Bangkok news source.

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  • Some taxis equipped with ‘barriers’ to protect against coronavirus transmission

    Some taxis equipped with ‘barriers’ to protect against coronavirus transmission

    Some taxis are being converted to be coronavirus-proof, well that’s the intention. A barrier designed by Royal Thai Air Force personnel, to protect people using taxis and keep drivers in business, has been rolled out. With possible close contact to many different people, taxi drivers are at risk of catching the virus. In February, a taxi driver was the first human-to-human virus transmission in…

  • Beware overcrowding and virus transmission – PM

    Beware overcrowding and virus transmission – PM

    Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha says packed crowds in public spaces are a concern when it comes to the transmission of the Covid-19 virus. The Bangkok Posts reports that Dr. Taweesilp Visanuyothin, the spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, says the PM wants to see more measures put in place to reduce overcrowding. Just a few days ago, a…

  • Gamblers arrested, police investigated for ‘negligence’ in Bang Chan

    Gamblers arrested, police investigated for ‘negligence’ in Bang Chan

    Not a lockdown, not a global pandemic, not a series of recent arrests will slow down the urge for some gamblers to gamble. Now officials from the Department of Provincial Administration in Bang Chan, north-east of Bangkok’s city centre, have raided more illegal casinos with some senior police in the area being side-lined to inactive posts. There were recent raids…

  • Bangkok’s International Pioneers School distributes free meals in local community

    Bangkok’s International Pioneers School distributes free meals in local community

    Joining similar campaigns across the nation, Bangkok’s International Pioneers School has been giving away lunch boxes with fresh, healthy food and a bottle of water to the local community every day since April 27. On the first day all the food prepared by the school was finished within 20 minutes. IPS increased the quantity for the next day, but that…

  • 20,000 military-grade masks are on the way to help battle Covid-19

    20,000 military-grade masks are on the way to help battle Covid-19

    The Thai Royal Army has approved the production of military and medical protective masks, a total of 20,000 pieces valued at 600 million baht, to help the nation save over 500 million baht on imported N95 masks. Funding has come from government agencies and the private sector, hoping to help 500 medical personnel in need in the southern border provinces…

  • Thousands of Thais to return by the end of May

    Thousands of Thais to return by the end of May

    The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration has announced that all Thai nationals, stranded abroad during the peak of the outbreak, will be repatriated. The government is preparing to welcome around 7,000 returnees who will arrive by the end of the month. Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the CCSA says that the centre is working closely with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs…

  • Speeding ambulance ejects patient on stretcher into Bangkok traffic – VIDEO

    Speeding ambulance ejects patient on stretcher into Bangkok traffic – VIDEO

    A video that captured the moment a female patient was catapulted from an ambulance into busy city traffic has now been viewed over a million times. The Thai Examiner reports that the incident occurred as the ambulance, lights flashing, was speeding through Bangkok traffic, transporting the woman to hospital. As the driver accelerated along Pracha Uthit Road in the capital’s…

  • Police chief transferred following raid on Bangkok gambling den

    Police chief transferred following raid on Bangkok gambling den

    A police chief in Bangkok has been transferred to a dormant post following a raid on a gambling den in the capital. The Bangkok Post reports that the bust took place at a snooker shop in the Bang Chan area of ​​the capital. 47 people were arrested, with the seizure of 49,300 baht in cash, which was being used for…

  • 2 Chinese nabbed for peddling hemp oil, facemasks

    2 Chinese nabbed for peddling hemp oil, facemasks

    A pair of Chinese nationals have been arrested in Bangkok for selling toys, hand gel, thermometers and hemp oil worth millions of baht. Cyberpolice yesterday said the suspects, named only as “Lee” and “Jan”, were arrested at a commercial building in Bangkok’s Bang Khunthian district. Police seized vast numbers of masks, body temperature scanners and sex toys as well as…

  • Bangkok authorities under fire for over-zealous tree pruning

    Bangkok authorities under fire for over-zealous tree pruning

    The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has come in for some flak after some over-enthusiastic pruning of the city’s trees. Some of the city’s green shade was cut back to bare, ugly stumps. A report in the Bangkok Post says trees along Witthayu Road, near the city’s famed Lumpini Park, have been chopped down to their lower trucks. A similar fate has…

  • Online video platform TikTok assessing live streaming in Thailand

    Online video platform TikTok assessing live streaming in Thailand

    TikTok, the most downloaded app in the world for 2 years running and the world’s leading short-video platform, has announced a trial of its first live streaming series in Thailand as part of its push to develop platform experiences for users around the world. TikTok’s first live streaming in Thailand was hosted by Vuthithorn “Woody” Milintachinda, a celebrity and influencer,…

  • 3 people jump to their deaths within 24 hours

    3 people jump to their deaths within 24 hours

    Unfortunately 3 people are reported to have jumped to their deaths yesterday, 2 in Bangkok and a third in Sara Buri, about 90 kilometres to the northeast. It’s believed the man jumped to his death from his 31st floor condominium in Ramkhamhaeng district at about 8:30 yesterday morning. The body of the man, who was not identified and who appeared…

  • The China Bounce – are the Chinese packing their bags ready to come back to Thailand?

    The China Bounce – are the Chinese packing their bags ready to come back to Thailand?

    by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com The results of a comprehensive new survey of consumers in Mainland China’s first tier cities concludes that 53% of respondents would like to travel internationally sometime this year. Citing the opportunity, the most popular months for trips abroad for the remainder of the year are, specifically, August, October and December. Thailand is one of the…

  • Samut Prakarn shooting leads to one fatality

    Samut Prakarn shooting leads to one fatality

    Last night at around 6pm, an army private is alleged to have shot and killed his father in law, in Samut Prakarn province (South of Bangkok). After police officers from Bangmeuang Station were informed of the multiple gunshots at a house in Sub Yang Yein housing estate in Mueang district, they quickly set up a blockade surrounding the area. The…

  • Monk defrocked and arrested after allegedly shooting man in the testicles

    Monk defrocked and arrested after allegedly shooting man in the testicles

    A monk at Wat Mongkhol Nimit in Samut Prakan, just south of Bangkok, has been defrocked and arrested for shooting another man who was living at the same temple. Police arrested 46 year old Phra Apiram Ruengthip at his living quarters on Friday evening. The former monk claims he only shot in self-defense. Police say they seized an unregistered handgun…

  • Four more Skytrain stations slated to open in June

    Four more Skytrain stations slated to open in June

    Bangkok’s BTS Skytrain is as ubiquitous in Bangkok as good street food and fake Viagra, and it’s about to add four new stops to extend its reach. A spokeman says test runs to 4 new stations beyond Kasetsart University station (N13) began on April 8. The system currently comprises 43 stations along two lines: the Sukhumvit Line running northwards and…

  • Phone booths get new lease on life as ‘Covid boxes’

    Phone booths get new lease on life as ‘Covid boxes’

    Move over Clark Kent, there’s a new Superhero in town in need of your dressing room. The Digital Economy and Society Ministry is converting TOT phone booths into Covid-19 testing kiosks to help lower the infection risk faced by healthcare workers due to the shortage of personal protective equipment. At a cost of less than 1,000 baht to repurpose, selected…

  • Police arrest 3 as they crack down on fake mask and gel network

    Police arrest 3 as they crack down on fake mask and gel network

    Provincial Police Region 1 officers have arrested 3 people who have been charged with selling a large quantity of fake hand gel dispensers and face masks. The arrests were made in Samut Prakan (south of Bangkok), Pathum Thani (north of Bangkok) and Bangkok. The provincial police believe that all 3 suspects are part of a bigger network of distributors and…

  • Police nab another suspect in notorious Forex-3D Ponzi scheme

    Police nab another suspect in notorious Forex-3D Ponzi scheme

    Police in Bangkok have arrested yet another suspect in the infamous Forex-3D Ponzi scheme which duped thousands with false promises of high returns and resulted in losses of tens of billions of baht. Department of Special Investigation officials have now arrested 30 year old Sitthanat Pho-ngern on a warrant issued by the Criminal Court. He’s charged with luring people to…

  • Bangkok man arrested for flogging dodgy medical certificates online

    Bangkok man arrested for flogging dodgy medical certificates online

    A young man in Bangkok has been arrested for peddling fake medical certificates on Facebook Marketplace. Police arrested 24 year old Phitchayaphat Somsri at a house in Lat Phrao district for selling the false certificates, including for Covid-19, for up to 1000 baht each, and say he used quite a number of tools in manufacturing them. A spokesman says the…

  • A golden moment for Thailand’s gold sellers

    A golden moment for Thailand’s gold sellers

    The streets of Bangkok’s Chinatown today have been paved with gold… sellers. Today, dozens of Bangkok citizens lined up outside Yaowarat Road gold shops, creating chaos as they tried to sell off their gold ornaments and gold bars after the price gold rose by 550 baht per baht of gold (15.244 grams.) It is reported that this is the highest…

  • The post-Covid-19 era: Radical changes in Bangkok’s property market

    The post-Covid-19 era: Radical changes in Bangkok’s property market

    Property consultants CBRE have come up with their own evaluation of the current Bangkok office market, already getting pounded by regional trends and a high baht, now suffering another challenge – the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak. They report that this situation will “create another split in our historical timeline – pre and post Covid-19” in Thailand. “At present, people are talking…

  • Woman convicted for 2005 stabbings, allegedly kills 5 year old

    Woman convicted for 2005 stabbings, allegedly kills 5 year old

    A mental patient who served prison time for the 2005 stabbings of 4 girls in Bangkok has turned herself in to police after allegedly stabbing a 5 year old girl to death. 50 year old Ms. Jitrlada Tantiwanitchasuk gave herself up to police in Nakhon Pathom province otside Bangkok yesterday. The 5 year old victim was pronounced dead on arrival…

  • 26 year old British man leaps to death from 13th floor in Bangkok

    26 year old British man leaps to death from 13th floor in Bangkok

    A British man, working in Bangkok as an English tutor, jumped from a 13th floor residence, in an alleged suicide. A neighbour discovered the man’s body while dumping rubbish on Thursday morning outside the apartment building in Bangkok’s Din Daeng district. Police report that they were told the 26 year old was depressed and worried because his income had evaporated…

  • Tuk-tuk driver assaults Grab driver in Bangkok

    Tuk-tuk driver assaults Grab driver in Bangkok

    Another Thai tuk tuk driver has been caught out trying to defend his ‘turf’. Tuk Tuk driver Ek has been charged with assaulting a grab car driver after dropping off passengers in front of a mall on Ratchadapisek Road, Bangkok. After the incident went viral online, Police Colonel Purit Jintranan invited both drivers for a talking at the Huai Khwang…

  • 30 year old woman jumps from 14th floor in Nonthaburi

    30 year old woman jumps from 14th floor in Nonthaburi

    Police are still investigating an incident in Nonthaburi, just west of Bangkok. Yesterday at 7:30pm, 30 year old Thanaporn jumped from the 14th floor “from fear of getting arrested by police officers” in a Muang Thong Thani housing estate in Nonthaburi. Thanaporn was wanted for attempted murder of her sister and two other relatives earlier this month. Earlier in March…

  • Ayuttaya man arrested with pistol, planning to shoot wife and her lover

    Ayuttaya man arrested with pistol, planning to shoot wife and her lover

    Police in Ayuttaya, north of Bangkok, yesterday arrested a man carrying an unregistered handgun and ammunition, who told them he was on his way to shoot his wife and her lover a a nearby mall. 45 year old Somkhid Ruennangyaem was pulled over on his motorbike for a search near Naresuan bridge in tambon Pailing, about 11am on Tuesday. Police…

  • Fire in the Fortune Town shopping centre in Din Daeng, Bangkok

    Fire in the Fortune Town shopping centre in Din Daeng, Bangkok

    It took firefighters 20 minutes to extinguish a blaze that started on the 4th floor of the Fortune Town shopping centre on Ratchadapisek Road in Bangkok’s Din Daeng district. The fire started this morning. There were no reports of injuries or death from the incident. The fire originated in a True Corporation customer service shop and cafe on the 4th…

  • Death of a salesman: King Power branch linked with coronavirus death is closed

    Death of a salesman: King Power branch linked with coronavirus death is closed

    King Power, Thailand’s largest travel retail group, has temporarily shuttered an outlet linked to Thailand’s first coronavirus-related death. A statement on Facebook earlier today said the branch has been closed since February 6 as part of health and safety measures, and that all its outlets have been sanitised. King Power, which holds the proprietary concession for all of Thailand’s duty-free…

  • Biker killed, 5 injured in bike/van crash south of Bangkok

    Biker killed, 5 injured in bike/van crash south of Bangkok

    One man is dead and another 5 passengers injured after a big bike the man was driving slammed into a van making a U-turn along Old Sukhumvit road in the main business district. The incident occurred at about 8pm in tambon Bang Pu Mai, on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, south of Bangkok. 32 year old Paveena Ratpipop, a…