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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Sponsored How one hospital visit in Thailand could cost more than your whole trip
Thailand is a favourite spot for travellers who want to enjoy more while spending less. From cheap street food to low-cost hotels and fun attractions, it’s easy to stretch your budget here. But there’s one thing many people don’t think...
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Bryde’s whale family sighted off Chumphon coast – VIDEO
PHOTOS: กรีน นำเที่ยว ดำน้ำเกาะเวียง A family of three Bryde’s whales has been sighted off Chumphon in the Gulf of Thailand. The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources is reporting that a family of three Bryde’s whales was sighted between Koh Weng and Koh Rang off the Chumphon coast. There were two mature Bryde’s whales and a baby Bryde’s whale calf.…
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Monk run over during alms rounds outside Chumphon temple
by Thanongsak Supakan A monk has been hit and killed by a speeding pickup truck in Chumphon this morning. He was making his alms rounds at the time. Police and rescue workers were called to the scene on Pathiu-Chumphon Road in front of Wat Laem Yang (Luang Por Khien) in Pathiu district around 4.30am. The 42 year old pickup driver Apiwan…
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Cabinet supports bid for southern ‘Nora’ dance to be included in UNESCO heritage list
“The Thai government will nominate Nora at UNESCO’s upcoming meeting. “Nora, a southern traditional dance, has been given the nod to seek a place on UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage representatives list.The Culture Ministry has been striving to preserve the unique Thai dance after ‘Khon’, the masked dance drama, was registered on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list at a…
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“Nothing to do with the election” – Deputy PM Prawit
Senior government security officials are claiming the series of bomb blasts last weekend in the southern provinces of Phatthalung and Satun are related to insurgency activities in the predominantly Muslim region. They say there is no connection with the upcoming election and that the timing is just co-incidence. The South has been racked by violence from an ongoing insurgency since…
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Bank evasive after 91 year old claims 5 million baht removed from his account
A 91 year old land owner and farmer in Chumpon claims that he’s had 5 million baht ‘taken’ from one of his bank accounts. Daily News reports that Thon Brahmjan from Tha Kham district had been to the bank, the police and government consumer watchdog Damrongtham Centre at the end of last year after the 5 million baht went missing…
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47 year old shot dead in Narathiwat over drug conflict
A man was shot and killed in Narathiwat last night over an alleged drug-trafficking conflict. Police believe the death is not part of the southern insurgency that has continues to plague Thailand’s deep South for more than a decade. “But the killers may want to disguise their crime as a security case,” according to police. The shooting was reported to…
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Muslim man shot and wounded on the Thai/Malaysia border
Police in Narathiwat are as yet to ascertain whether political or personal motives were behind a shooting in Sungai Kolok district this morning that left a Muslim man severely wounded. Sungai Kolok is on the Thai/Malaysian border. 29 year old Rusalan Do, a resident of Moo 1 in the Rangae district, was shot four times – in the torso, right thigh…
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“Measles vaccine doesn’t cause autism” – conclusive Danish study
Even as measles outbreaks continue to mount among clusters of unvaccinated children around the world, in developed countries as well as a concentration in Thailand’s southern provinces, yet another large study finds NO association between the measles vaccine and autism – a reason often parroted by parents for refusing vaccination for their children. Measles infected 2,280 people and killed 18…
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Italian couple killed as truck rolls on top of them in Chumphon – VIDEO
PHOTO: Screenshot from Thai Rath’s video Two Italian tourists have been killed after an oil truck’s brakes allegedly failed coming down a hill. The truck overturned and rolled onto the pair in Chumphon. Workpoint News reports that the incident happened at an intersection in Paknam, Chumphon yesterday afternoon. Emergency responders arrived to find the overturned oil truck lying on the…
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Anti-vaxers blamed for astonishing rise of Measles in 2018 – UNICEF
“Measles is more contagious than tuberculosis or Ebola, yet it is eminently preventable with a vaccine that costs pennies.” Thailand figures in the Top 10 countries in the world where measles cases rose alarmingly in 2018. Most of the rises of Measles cases in Thailand have occurred in the three southern-most provinces where a large Muslim majority live. In some…
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400 marauding macaques invade plantations in Surat Thani
PHOTO: Catch us if you can Surat Thani officials are coming up with a plan to sort out the 400+ long-tailed macaques who have been invading fruit orchards and oil palm plantations for months. Provincial governor Wichawut Jinto has made the order after receiving countless complaints from residents of the southern province’s Phunphin district saying that the monkeys have caused…
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Southern ranger killed, two injured in Yala bomb ambush
PHOTOS: The Nation Southern insurgents have detonated a home-made bomb in a roadside ambush of a patrol unit of rangers in Yala’s Bannang Sata district. The fatal incident happened this morning, killing one ranger and injuring another. Yala provincial police were informed of the blast at 9.25am. It occurred on the main road in Tambon Bacho’s Ban Ubae village. 33…
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History of Thailand’s Southern Insurgency
Whenever there’s news about violence in southern Thailand, Thaiger readers may wonder who’s fighting who, and why. So we present a brief history of the insurgency which has gripped Thailand’s southernmost provinces for decades. The area has been coined the ‘deep south’ or the ‘restive south’ and has become, statistically, a more bloody conflict than the situation on the Gaza…
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Six marine officials killed as van slams into tree, Chumpon
PHOTO: A van is almost totally destroyed after slamming into a tree on Highway 41 in Sawi district of Chumphon yesterday (Sunday) – Facebook/Chumphon Rescue Volunteers at Khao Ka Rong Investigators are blaming a burst tyre on a passenger van that crashed, killing six Marine Department officials in Chumpon, heading back from Phuket towards Bangkok. The officials were killed and five others…
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Southern insurgency: Ranger shot dead in Songkhla house
FILE PHOTO: The latest shooting in a spate of recent violence in the southern provinces – The Nation A ranger based in Yala has been shot dead at his home in Songkhla’s Muang district. Pol Capt Adirek Burintrapibal, the deputy inspector of Muang Songkhla police station, was alerted at 8.30pm last night of the shooting at a house in Moo 10…
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50+ motorbike taxi drivers blockade southern border
50 Thai motorcycle taxi drivers have set up a blockade at the Thai-Malaysian border checkpoint to protest what they allege are unworkable, stricter immigration checks now imposed by Malaysian immigration officials. The taxi drivers say they have been bringing Thai tourists across the border in Songkhla’s Sadao district to the duty-free shops in Malaysia’s Padang Besar for years. Yesterday morning’s…
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One dead, one injured in Narathiwat garage shooting
A gunman has opened fire at a Malaysian garage owner in Narathiwat’s Sungai Golok district last night, killing him and severely injuring a Malaysian employee. 54 year old Sulaimi bin Mat Ali died at the Sungai Golok Hospital after the 8:30pm shooting at his car workshop on Soi Pracha Ruamjai off Pracha Uthit 2 Road in Ban Sarayor village in…
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Sentences handed down for militants linked to truck theft and murder in Songkhla
One militant has been sentenced to death and another three handed down life sentences. The sentences were handed down by the presiding judge at the Na Thawee provincial court yesterday in the southern province of Songkhla after being found guilty of murder, robbery and illegal detention. A fifth defendant was sentenced to two years and eight months prison for being an accessory…
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Boom boom on the border – Thailand’s unlikely red-light district
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…
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Injured king cobra caught in Trang
PHOTOS: กา คาบข่าว A three metre king cobra has been caught in Trang yesterday, the sixth king cobra caught in Trang in two months. It’s much smaller than the 5 metre monsters caught in Krabi in recent weeks. Rescue workers in Sikao, Trang were notified of the king cobra that was found near the entrance of Pak Meang Beach in…
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Whale shark carcass found on Satun Beach
PHOTO: DMCR The body of a whale shark was discovered on a beach in Satun yesterday. The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) is reporting that officials at the Mu Koh Paetra National Park in Satun were notified about the huge whale shark carcass that had been washed on a beach between Phang Ga Ya Bay and Ko Bulon…
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800K methamphetamine pills seized in Chumphon
PHOTOS: Region 8 Police 800,000 methamphetamine pills have been seized in Chumphon this week. A staged media scrum was held at Region 8 Police headquarters in Mai Khao yesterday, led by the Region 8 Police Commander Lt Gen Pongwut Pongsri. The arrests came after police and soldiers set up a checkpoint on Bangsaphan – Chumphon Road in Patiw, Chumphon. Following…
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Sea Turtle found dead on Chumpon beach, choked on plastics
by Prasit Leehukunakorn A large green turtle has been found dead on Chumphon’s Bang Nam Jeud Beach, believed to have died from plastic waste it ingested. “I found a piece of plastic in its throat, so I think it’s the latest victim of sea-borne plastic waste,” said Amnuaykiat Timnakha, deputy chief of the Tambon Bang Nam Jeud Organisation. He was…
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Bangkok-Yala Express Train crashes into pickup killing mother and child
PHOTO: Coconuts A mother and son have died after a Bangkok-Yala express train hit their pick up this morning on a road between Ban Tham Khao Chawala and Ban Tham Namthip Villages in Surat Thani, southern Thailand. The victims were identified as 39 year old Weerawal Semrod and her 10 year old son Manoonsak. The incident occurred at a level…
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Mother and son killed after train collided with their pickup truck in Surat Thani
PHOTOS: fm91bkk A mother and a son have been killed after a train collided with a pickup truck in Surat Thani this morning. FM 91 Bangkok is reporting that the Tha Chana Police in Surat Thani were notified of the incident at a railway in Tha Chana. Police and rescue workers arrived at the scene where there were no barriers for…
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Attacks in Thailand’s deep south – International coverage
Thailand’s southern insurgency, a long, protracted border and religious ‘war’, continues to rage with recent attacks getting more attention. This is partly due to the new targets with local schools getting caught in cross-fire and last Friday night’s killing of a temple abbot and another monk during prayers. The international media is now starting to provide greater coverage of one…
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Thai PM condemns southern violence. Urges media to be ‘careful’ covering the story.
PHOTOS: The Nation Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has responded to escalating violence in the strife-torn South today by saying that the people behind the deadly attack at a temple in Narathiwat province on Friday night were seeking to ramp up attention given to the violence in the South to the international level and lure officials into conducting “forceful suppression”. “Those…
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UPDATE: 4000 villagers attend funeral rites for slain monks in Narathiwat
Over 4,000 villagers, including more than 300 monks from several temples in southern provinces and border provinces of Malaysia, have attended a bathing ritual for the two monks slain by gunmen who stormed Wat Rattananuparb in Narathiwat on Friday night. Read more about the raid HERE. The bathing rites for Phra Khru Prachote Rattananurak, the abbot of Wat Rattananuparb, and…
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Human Rights Watch condemn Narathiwat temple murders as a war crime
PHOTOS: The Nation The cold-blooded attack on a Narathiwat temple, where two monks were gunned down last night, was “inhumane and barbaric”. Spokesman for the Defence Ministry, Lt General Kongcheep Tantrawanich, says that those behind the attack at Wat Rattananuparb in Sungai Padi district “showed no mercy”. “They prefer to use violence to make people fear for their own benefits…
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Two monks killed in temple shooting at Narathiwat
PHOTO: The Nation “We believe that at least six assailants were involved in the shooting and are at large,” – police spokesman in the Su-ngai Padi district. Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has condemned the latest violence in southern province Narathiwat where two monks were gunned down and others injured last night (Friday). Narathiwat is Thailand’s southern-most province. Government spokesman Puttipong Bunnakun…
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