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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Thai government, Patani Malay Southern rebels still disagree on key issues
The Thai government and Southern separatist group Barisan Revolusi Nasional still stand apart on several important issues. The two parties met last week in the first peace talks in two years. Reports say the BRN wishes to establish an autonomous region known as Patani Darussalam, which includes Thailand’s Deep South provinces near the Malaysian border of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, and…
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Peace talks held in Phuket with Islamist rebel group
Leaders of the Islamist rebel group Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Patani joined a peace dialogue panel in Phuket with the secretary-general of Thailand’s National Security Council, Wanlop Raksanoh, to discuss solutions to the religious separatist insurgency by the Malaysian border. The panel was held at Le Meridian Phuket Beach Resort and lasted from Saturday to Sunday. Also present at the…
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Thailand’s first Omicron variant Covid-19 death in Hat Yai
An official from the Ministry of Public Health announced that today Thailand had its first reported death from the Omicron variant of Covid-19. The death recorded in Songkhla province in the south of Thailand was an 86 year old woman from Hat Yai. She had Alzheimer’s and was bedridden. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health said the elderly…
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Fugitive arrested 7 years after trafficking Rohingya migrants
On May 18, 2015, the Nathawee Provincial Court in Songkhla issued an arrest warrant for Chamsudin Tordin for various charges relating to human trafficking. Today, after nearly 7 years as a fugitive, Chamsudin was taken into custody and will face charges regarding trafficking of Rohingya migrants. The man is now 38 years old and is a native of Muang District…
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“Ghost ship” found off Thailand coast, Navy investigates abandoned Chinese vessel
What many are calling a “ghost ship” was found sinking in the Gulf of Thailand off the coast of Nakhon Si Thammarat. The abandoned Chinese cargo ship was spotted by staff working at an offshore oil rig. No one was on board the vessel. The staff at the Chevron rigs reported the vessel to the 2nd Naval Area Command in…
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Rok Islands in Trang sees rare sighting of manta rays
It’s been about 18 years since they’ve been spotted in this area of the Andaman sea off the coast of Thailand, but snorkelers around the Rok Islands spotted a few manta rays. They are a vulnerable species that are rarely sighted in the area and are known to be the largest type of rays in the world. The area off…
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Omicron variant found in Nakhon Si Thammarat
As infections of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 surpass 1,100 cases in Thailand, the first confirmed case in Nakhon Si Thammarat was identified in a woman. She had already been fully vaccinated and received a booster shot. The 26 year old woman works at Kasemrad Hospital in Bangkok and travelled to the province to attend her grandfather’s funeral. The woman…
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Local mosque leader shot and killed in Pattani
Police are investigating the murder of a local mosque’s leader who was shot and killed while driving his motorcycle in Sai Buri in Southern Thailand’s Pattani province on Sunday night. The religious leader was shot twice, in the head and in the abdomen. The gunman is still at large. Police say a gunman shot Abdulloh Walor, a member of the mosque’s…
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Decomposing headless body found along the beach in Songkhla
A man out for a morning stroll this morning along the beach in the Muang district of Songkhla happened upon a grizzly discovery: a decomposing dead body on the beach, minus its head. The 72 year old man who discovered the headless body, which had decomposed to the point of being mostly bones, promptly notified the police of the morbid…
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Passenger train bombed in Thailand’s Deep South, 3 injured
A passenger train carrying around 300 people was bombed in Thailand’s Deep South, injuring two train officials and one passenger. The Defense Ministry says insurgents detonated the explosive along a railway in Pattani, a province by the Malaysian border with ongoing violence and attacks related to the religious separatist insurgency. The Defence Ministry of Thailand chastised the insurgents for attacking…
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Bomb in Narathiwat explodes, monks and soldiers unharmed
In the Deep South province of Narathiwat bordering on Malaysia, a bomb exploded this morning, with 2 monks and 2 soldiers narrowly escaping harm. The explosion took place early this morning on the side of the road in Rueso district of the province that often sees violence and bombings from local insurgents. As is common for Buddhist monks in Thailand,…
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CCSA meets today to decide on southern border re-opening
A deputy government spokesperson says the CCSA will meet today to decide if the border with Malaysia can be re-opened, despite the southern neighbour reporting a case of the Omicron variant. According to a Bangkok Post report, Rachada Dhnadirek says the CCSA has previously agreed in principle, but the emergence of Omicron means the situation needs careful monitoring. “The forward…
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Soldier suspended from duty after allegedly killing a woman in Narathiwat
A military soldier from the 4th Army has been charged with allegedly killing a 44 year old woman in Narathiwat’s Tak Bai district yesterday. The solider allegedly approached the woman, asked her a question, and then took out a revolver, shooting her in the forehead. An Army spokesperson, Maj Gen Pramote Phrom-in, today said the suspect is identified as Sgt…
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Chumphon flood makes main North-South highway impassable
In Chumphon province, the highway connecting Bangkok to the South of Thailand has been hit with a flood so bad it has been impassable. After 300 millimetres of rain fell on the Chumphon districts of Lang Suan, Sawi, and Thung Tako on Tuesday, the main artery travelling the whole of southern Thailand was flooded in several areas. The battered province…
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Songkhla prepares for tourism across the Southern land border
Despite having the second most daily Covid-19 infections in the country today with 441 and becoming the 6th most infected province overall, the Deep South border province of Songkhla is preparing to reopen in December and bracing for a surge of overland international visitors. Local tourism operators are saying they expect around 10,000 tourists from Malaysia and Singapore per week…
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Glue sniffing man charged with murder for a temple beating
A man high from sniffing glue beat an older man to death with a piece of firewood in a temple in Nakhon Si Thammarat after the man refused to give him tobacco. The murder took place earlier today at Wat Khiriwong temple in Lan Saka district. The attacker was a 42 year old man from a village in tambon Kam…
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Six gunmen attack police vehicle in Deep South, two officers injured
Six gunmen reportedly fired shots at a police pickup truck in the Deep South province Narathiwat, injuring two officers before pouring petrol on the vehicle and setting it on fire. The region near the Malaysian border is prone to violence related to the religious separatist insurgency. The officers were driving from the Si Sakhon district police station to Narathiwat Court…
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Southern Thailand to receive 500,000 vaccine doses to combat Covid-19 surge
The head of the Disease Control Department says half a million vaccine doses are being sent to 4 southern provinces. Opart Karnkawinpong says the allocation is to help the region battle a surge in Covid-19 infections. The southern provinces have already received an earlier allocation of 500,000 vaccines doses. According to a Thai PBS World report, the southern province of…
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Expelled monk returns to southern Thailand to celebrate birthday
A former monk who was expelled from monkhood has returned to southern Thailand to celebrate his birthday. Phra Yantra Amaro Bhikku, who is now known as Winai La-Ongsuwan, became disgraced from monkhood after alleged sexual misconduct. Although he has often returned to Thailand after his criminal defamation case against him in 2014, Covid-19 has kept him away for the past…
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Senior health official says South must move to Pfizer only to tackle Covid-19 outbreak
A senior health official in the southern province of Songkhla says the region must move to Pfizer vaccines only, in order to combat a surge in Covid-19 infections. According to a Nation Thailand report, Dr Papon Deechaisit is proposing a move from mixing Sinovac and AstraZeneca to using Pfizer for both doses. There has been a concerning spike in infections…
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Violence continues between military and insurgents in Thailand’s deep south
The fighting between the military and insurgents in the Southern border provinces of Thailand continues. Yesterday the Thai military killed a suspected insurgent after a shootout in a peat swamp in the Bacho district of Narathiwat, a province on Thailand’s southern border. This marks the sixth insurgent killed in the area in the last week. A combined force of Thai…
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Pattani Covid-19 spike fills nearly all field hospital beds
In the Deep South province of Pattani, health officials are reporting that field hospital beds are about full with 4,000 patients in care as Covid-19 numbers surge in the region. The Pattani Provincial Public Health Office is racing to create community isolation treatment centres to house up to 10,000 patients as Covid-19 infections continue to mount. The region is imposing…
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Covid-19 in Southern provinces prompts Songkhla checkpoints
As Thailand’s Deep South faces surges in Covid-19 infections, people crossing from the three southern border provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, and Yala will face checkpoints when crossing into Songkhla. The checkpoints will stop travellers crossing the southern provincial border to do random Covid-19 screening. Pattani recorded 566 new Covid-19 infections yesterday, the most cases out of the southern provinces, and…
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High Covid-19 infections in the Deep South fuel lockdown fears
The Deep South of Thailand, particularly Songkhla and Pattani, has seen a surge in Covid-19 infections, prompting calls for action and fears of lockdowns to come. Covid-19 clusters have been mainly centred in factories and businesses, with outbreaks traced to a wedding banquet and a barbecue restaurant, but some cases are still crossing provincial lines into the southern provinces. Chana,…
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Nakhon Si Thammarat police: don’t throw eggs at PM Prayut
Perhaps in an effort to do some damage control for today’s visit from PM Prayut Chan-o-cha to inspect flood preparedness in the Southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat, the provincial police released an official warning notice instructing people to be on good behaviour for the prime minister’s visit. After several stops of his flood surveying tour has been met by…
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6 warrants out for death of 1 million swiftlets, theft of bird’s nest
Six arrests have been made in connection with the shocking story last month of caves raided in Phatthalung where 1 million swiftlets were killed and their valuable birds’ nest plundered. Swiftlets, unlike other birds, make their nests entirely out of their own saliva which has been prized, especially in Asian culture, as a healing delicacy. Authorities estimated a 5 billion…
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Infections rise in “Deep South,” top health official to assess the situation
As Covid-19 infection rates rise in Thailand’s four southern provinces near the Malaysian border, PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered Public Health Permanent Secretary to visit and assess the situation, a government spokesperson said yesterday. The prime minister has asked that the situation be brought under control within the next two months. According to the CCSA, the four border provinces, known…
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Four suspected insurgents on the run killed in clash with “Deep South” soldiers
In the “Deep South” province Narathiwat, four suspected insurgents were killed in a gunfire exchange with soldiers on Sunday and an army officer was killed in another clash with insurgents the night before, according to the Bangkok Post. Reports say the insurgents killed in the incident were all wanted on court warrants, most of them facing charges for deadly attacks.…
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Mute man nabbed for child porn, solicited nudes from 8 year old
A 37 year old man has been arrested in Chumphon for allegedly convincing an 8 year old girl to send nude photos to him. The Technology Crime Suppression police arrested the man on child porn charges. The man, whose name was not publicly released, was arrested by police in front of his house in Muang District. Police reported after taking…
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2 officers killed, 4 injured in roadside bomb explosion in Thailand’s Deep South
A roadside bomb explosion in the Deep South province Narathiwat killed two police officers and injured four others yesterday afternoon. Small bombings and other attacks in the southernmost provinces near the Malaysian border happen frequently and are often related to the religious separatist insurgency. The bomb was made with a cooking gas cylinder and then placed in a sewer pipe…
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