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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Government to give cash handouts to oil palm planters
The National Oil Palm Committee, led by Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan, plans to give away 1,500 baht per rai cash handout to 150,000 oil palm planters in a massive subsidy for their production cost. The subsidies arrive with almost perfect timing for the ruling NCPO in the lead up to the national election in February and the rise of the…
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Mother killed by moving train, 2 year old daughter survives
A mother and her 2 year old daughter fell from a train at a station in Nakhon Si Thammarat. The mother died while the girl survived with minor injuries. The incident took place at the Klong Chandee railway station at 10am this morning. Police say 21 year old Benjawan Duangsuwan died at the scene. Her daughter was sent to Por Than…
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Surat Thani monk arrested over molestation allegations
Surat Thani police have served an arrest warrant on a 35 year old monk at the Wat Dang Nai. Sanook is reporting that Phra Mongkhon faces charges of molesting under 15 year old boys. The arrest of the monk follows an official complaint made by a parent to police back in April who claimed her 13 year old son had…
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Drugs-in-book being sent to Phuket, seized in Songkhla
PHOTO: Hatyai Police A man has been arrested in Hat Yai, Songkhla trying to smuggle crystal methamphetamine inside a book in a parcel bound for Phuket. Hat Yai Police have arrested 31 year old Preawpan Tamakunapohn at a hotel in Hat Yai. He was found with three bags of crystal methamphetamine totaling 82.31 grams. One bag was found in his…
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Multiple waterspouts observed off Koh Lipe – VIDEO
People on the beach at Koh Lipe were treated to a spectacular sight of four waterspouts off Satun today. The sudden phenomenon in the Andaman Sea was recorded as video and photos and widely shared on social media. The phenomenon happened a little before noon on Sunday when the four waterspouts shot out towards the horizon for 10-15 minutes, which…
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Two shot dead at a Pattani market place – Southern insurgency
The southern insurgency, never out of the news for more than a week, has claimed two more lives in the southern provinces. Two defence volunteers have been fatally shot at a shopping market place in the Kapor district of Pattani province yesterday. Police believe that southern militants were behind the brazen close-range attack. The two victims, identified as Supote Phonpala…
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Southern Muslim leaders disapprove of LGBT partner bill
“Only in the South has our public forum on the Life Partnership Bill heard opposition.” Muslim leaders in Thailand’s South have rejected the proposed Life Partnership Bill, which would allow LGBT couples to marry. The Nation reports that, if the bill becomes law, the religious leaders say they will not perform marriage rituals for LGBT couples. No religious leader is…
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18 children dead as officials try to fight vaccine denial – Measles outbreak
“Young kids should avoid known infected areas, and patients should be quarantined.” Measles has now infected 2,280 people in the South and killed 18 in the mainly Muslim border provinces already this year. The largest group affected were young children up to the age of four. “Measles vaccination is free and is in line with Islamic principles,” Songkhla’s public-health chief…
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Region 8 Police pre-Loy Krathong crime blitz
The Region 8 Police have seized more than 3 million methamphetamine pills and more than 100 firearms during a week of drugs and crimes crackdowns before Loy Kratong, from seven provinces. Detail were revealed at a press conference at the Region 8 Police headquarter in Mai Khao. From November 13-18, before the Loy Kratong festivities tomorrow, police arrested a total…
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Cabinet agrees to bail out rubber planters and tappers
The Cabinet has approved in principle to pour 18.6 billion baht in aid packages to help the beleaguered rubber plantation owners and rubber tappers. The rubber industry says they’re being affected by falling rubber prices. Under the aid package, according to Thai PBS, the government will offer a handout of 1,800 baht for each rai of rubber plantation but not…
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Muslim leader rules measles vaccine ‘not prohibited’ by Islam
The Chularajamontri in Yala, Thailand’s Islamic spiritual leader, has made an unofficial ruling that Muslims can receive measles vaccine. Ahmad Abdull Hazima, the Islamic leader in Yala, said the Chularajamontri and 39 provincial Islamic committees have made unofficial rulings that vaccines are not prohibited by Islam. The rulings were sought after an ongoing outbreak of measles in four southern border…
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Narathiwat officials swing into action to combat deadly measles outbreak
by Narong Nuansakul The southern province of Narathiwat is stepping up vaccinations against measles as the disease has already claimed up to twelve lives in Yala and Pattani since June this year. A huge number of youngsters aged between one and five in Yala and Pattani have come down with measles in recent months, claiming the lives of 12 children.…
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3 Vietnamese boats seized, 14 crew arrested
A Royal Thai Navy patrol boat has seized three Vietnamese fishing vessels and arrested 14 crew members for illegally ‘raking’ the seabed for sea cucumbers in the Gulf of Thailand. The three boats were spotted and ordered to surrender by HTMS Khamronsin on Monday. The Navy ship forced the vessels back to the port of the Songkhla-based Navy Area 2…
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10 children have died from southern measles outbreak
The measles outbreak in Yala has worsened with 859 children now having been infected and the death toll standing at 10 cases, Betong district health official Wongwit Akarawarothai said on Tuesday. Wongwit joined other health officials in knocking on doors to have people in Ban Na Kor (Moo 9) in Tambon Ai Yer Weng vaccinated, resulting in 75 children under…
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Man shot dead in a krathom brew party
A man has been shot dead in Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Chulabhorn district after a dispute broke out during a ‘krathom brew drinking party’ early today. The victim, identified as 29 year old Sathit Changnam was shot 11 times all over is body. Several spent shells of 9mm pistol bullets were found at the scene – a shophouse in Moo 4…
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Storm forces Army helicopter into emergency landing
FILE PHOTO: Bell Helicopters 212 of the Royal Thai Army at Khon Kaen An Army helicopter flying senior military officers from Surat Thani to Ranong provinces has been forced to make an emergency landing in Chumphon this morning because of a thunderstorm cell that developed quickly along the route. The Bell 212 helicopter encountered sudden heavy rains, forcing it to…
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Southern border wild boar smuggling risks spread of African swine fever
Thailand’s southern provinces are facing new risks from a viral strain called “African swine fever”. Experts say this is due to the many wild boars that are being smuggled in to the region over the border with Malaysia. According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, the disease is highly contagious and affects both wild and farm pigs. It has…
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New Thai Army Commander visits Pattani
The new Royal Thai Army Commander has paid a visit to the troubled southern region. He’s met with local security agencies who met with him at Sirindhorn Camp in Pattani province, as well as meeting with religious leaders in an effort to continue the peace initiatives undertaken by his predecessor. Royal Thai Army Commander Gen Apirat Kongsompong has led a delegation…
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Religious tolerance is OK until it starts interfering with community health
Last week it was revealed that six children have died in the southern provinces of Thailand since June this year. Sadly, children die all the time through misadventure and incurable disease. But these six children died from Measles, one of the many diseases that have been brought under control in most communities over the past half century. Vaccination has also…
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Heavy rain in spots around the country until Monday
Residents in the Central, East and the South, including Bangkok and suburbs, are being warned to brace themselves for heavy rains from tomorrow until Monday. In a first warning issued at 11am this morning, the TMD (Thai Meteorological Department) said that heavy rains would hitting the forecast areas due to a low-pressure cell over the lower South China Sea. They…
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Islamic anti-vaxxers in the south causing measles outbreak
by Pratch Rujivanrom Anti-vaxxers in Thailand’s deep south are causing widespread discomfort and even death with a current measles outbreak sweeping through the three southern-most provinces. Vaccine denial is common in some Muslim communities and has contributed to the deaths of at least six patients, including children, over the past three months. Though vaccines are proven to prevent diseases – they’ve…
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Escaped prisoner trio recaptured in Chumphon
Three inmates who took advantage of a lapse in security, escaping from a court in Chumphon on Thursday, have been recaptured this morning in Chumpon. Police say the three were hiding on a mountain in a forest near by Huay Kla village in Tambon Tako in Chumphon’s Sawi district for the past two days. They went down to the village…
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Baby elephant Chao Duan dies, 13 days after falling it pit
A two year old male elephant, nicknamed Chao Duan, died earlier today from his injuries, 13 days after veterinarians tried to save it after it fell into a pit in Chumphon. Nam Tok Ngao National Park head Somjet Chanthana said the young elephant died at 4am. It was rescued from a muddy pit in the forest near Ban Chanren in…
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Three border police wounded in Narathiwat attack
by Narong Nuansakul Three border patrol police officers have been injured after being fired on in a gun attack by two suspected insurgents while returning to their base in Narathiwat’s Rusoh district yesterday morning (Thursday). Police deputy inspector Captain Marut Nilkosi visited the scene at Ban Manang Panyang (Moo 1) in Tambon Samakkhee. Officers collected around 20 spent AK-47 and…
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Innocent health volunteer shot dead in Pattani
A village health volunteer has been shot dead after a shooting last night in Pattani’s Thung Yang Daeng district. 52 year old Abdulloh Bahoh was on his way to pick up his wife at a market when he was shot three times in the head. Witnesses told police he pulled over where several unidentified men were gathered and words were…
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School director ambushed in Pattani
The director of a school in Pattani’s Panareh district escaped an ambush by four suspected insurgents this morning, police said. The director, Thawil Sae-ham, was driving to Ban Nam Bor School when he was attacked by four men on two motorcycles on the main road of Moo 3 village in Tambon Phor Ming. Thawil said both pillion riders fired AK-47…
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Baby elephant rescued from muddy pit in Chumpon
by Prasit Leehakhunakorn A two year old male elephant, ‘Chao Duan’, has been rescued after it fell into a 70 centimetre deep and four metre wide muddy pit where it was stuck for two days in Chumphon province. The elephant is now recovering under the loving care of veterinarians, although its hind legs remain immobile for now. Nam Tok Ngao…
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‘Romantic conflicts’ suspected in murder of Chinese woman
A 28 year old Chinese woman, found dead at the Ton Nga Chang waterfall in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district on September 20, is suspected to have been murdered by a male compatriot and two accomplices. This revelation from the Deputy Tourist Police Bureau Commissioner Pol Maj-General Surachate Hakparn today. Police suspect a romantic conflict as a motive for the murder…
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Suspect questioned in alleged waterfall murder in Hat Yai
PHOTO: Sanook An investigation into the death of 28 year old Chinese tourist Lei Jiang at the Tone Nga Chang falls in Hat Yai in Thailand’s south has turned up some fresh evidence. A rock that may have been used as a murder weapon, as well as possible bloodstains, have been found in the area. While an accident or suicide has…
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How many twins in one Trang school?
Sanook is reporting that a primary school in Trang has an unusual problem. It’s a confusing time for teachers and students with 20 sets of twins in classes from kindergarten up to primary 6. In the past the school has had as many as 28 twins in some years over the past decade. That is more than any other school…
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