southern Thailand
- Thailand News
Cat goes missing in Hat Yai, turns up 1000km away in Bangkok, Thailand
‘Moota’ the stripy cat turned up in Bangkok after going missing more than one month ago, almost 1000 kilometres away near the border of Malaysia in Hat Yai, Songkhla province, southern Thailand. On Wednesday, the Facebook page ‘Traffic on the Si Rat – Outer Ring Road Expressway of Bangkok‘ posted pictures of a beautiful striped cat with a red collar…
- Phuket News
UPDATE: Governor rushing to feed over 800 Phuket flood victims
UPDATE Phuket Governor Narong is rushing to get food to over 800 victims of the island province’s recent floods. A total of 871 people, making up 372 households, have been affected by heavy floods that hit Phuket on Friday. Narong yesterday led officials in handing out 1,800 meals to people at Wat Nai Yang temple in the Thalang district. This…
- Phuket News
UPDATE: Prayut calls in army to help with Phuket floods
UPDATE After floods wreaked havoc in Phuket yesterday, General Prayut Chan-o-cha has today called in the Royal Thai Army for some backup to help the island province’s victims, and pump out flood water. Prayut has ordered army officers to pump out water in the area around the Phuket International Airport. He has also ordered to officers to help victims in…
- Phuket News
VIDEO: Phuket Airport and surrounding areas engulfed by floods
Floodwater is being pumped out of Phuket Airport and surrounding areas following heavy rainfall. No flights have been cancelled yet but the airport has requested passengers to arrive three to four hours before their scheduled departure time. “Heavy rain in Phuket province has resulted in flooding at Phuket Airport. Urgent remedial action is being taken in all flooded areas,” said…
- Thailand News
Thai couple’s 1,000km, 20 hours Songkran motorcycle odyssey
A Thai couple travelled 20 hours on a motorbike and over 1,000 kilometres from Bangkok to their hometown in Pattani province in the south of Thailand before Songkran because all train tickets were fully booked and flights were too pricey for them. The woman, Nurfatihah, posted a video of the epic motorcycle journey she took to Pattani with her boyfriend…
- Thailand News
Locals angry after public road shut for private party in S Thailand
The son in law of a police officer caused outrage in the local community of Trang in the south of Thailand after he blocked off a public road to have a housewarming party. Netizens in Trang demanded answers from the provincial government after a video emerged on social media of an ambulance being denied access to the road because it…
- Crime News
Police find 40,000 meth pills in abandoned car in S Thailand
Police in the Ron Phibun district of southern Thailand discovered 40,000 methamphetamine pills in an abandoned, wrecked car with a street value of about 5 million baht late last night. Ron Phibun police chief Pol Col Suthas Songsayom announced officers were alerted to the abandoned vehicle that had crashed in a ditch, near Suan Phak intersection in tambon Ron Phibun,…
- South Thailand News
Explosive device found hidden inside 7-Eleven in southern Thailand
An explosive device planted by suspected insurgents was discovered hidden on a shelf at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Narathiwat province in southern Thailand on Friday. Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) officers rushed to the scene and successfully disposed of the bomb. On Friday, a member of staff at a 7-Eleven store in the Yee Ngor district was restocking shelves when…
- Crime News
South African’s life sentence reduced to 33 years for drug trafficking in Thailand
Koh Samui Court decided to reduce 23 year old Ashley Oosthuizen’s life sentence to 33.4 years at a hearing on Wednesday. Ashley, from South Africa, is behind bars in Nakhon Si Thammarat province in southern Thailand for signing for a package containing MDMA at a restaurant in Koh Samui in late 2020. She was found guilty of international drug trafficking.…
- Crime News
Teen soldier murders cousin for allegedly raping his mother
A 19 year old soldier was arrested for murdering his cousin in an act of revenge for allegedly raping his mother in Southern Thailand. The soldier, Watcharapong Lakejit, murdered his cousin, 36 year old Niphat Sookmak, on Tuesday night by stabbing him in the head with a knife. The teenager was arrested for the offence at 3am yesterday at a…
- Phuket News
Elephant rips mahout’s body in half in southern Thailand
An elephant ripped its mahout in half with its tusks yesterday morning at a rubber plantation in southern Thailand’s Phang Nga province. Police think the elephant was annoyed at its owner for making it haul rubberwood in the hot weather. At 11.30am, officers from Takua Thung Police Station were informed that a mahout had been killed by a 20 year…
- South Thailand News
Landmines kill 1, injure 10 in Deep South of Thailand
A soldier was killed and ten people were injured after two landmines were detonated at a rubber plantation in the Deep South of Thailand yesterday. Of the ten people injured in the explosion at the rubber plantation in Kok Ko, a village in Narathiwat province, southern Thailand, six were police officers and four were civilians. The injuries to the police…
- South Thailand News
4,000 Muslims protest against construction of Kuan Yin statue in southern Thailand
More than 4,000 Muslims gathered yesterday to protest against the construction of the largest Kuan Yin statue in the world on Khao Lon mountain in Songkhla province, southern Thailand. President of the Islamic Committee of Songkhla Province Sakkriya Bilsal alongside an imam from every mosque in the province were among those opposing the construction of the 200-metre-tall statue of a…
- Crime News
Pedo father & 2 stepbrothers jailed for raping 12 year old Thai girl
The father and two stepbrothers of a 12 year old Thai girl have been jailed for the alleged rape of the child. The father, 46 year old Yapard Aree-air, and two stepbrothers, 19 year old Arun Saeng-atit, and a 17 year old Khao, were arrested and charged, after the girl reported the incident to police in the southern province of…
- South Thailand News
Southern Thailand rebel group considers 3 month ceasefire for Buddhist Lent
Another round of “peace talks” between the Thai government and rebel groups in Thailand’s Deep South was wrapped up yesterday at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) – one of the most active and well-established insurgent groups in the south – is considering Thailand’s request for a three month ceasefire for the duration of Buddhist…
- Road deaths
Patient dies after the route of emergency rescue van blocked
A heartless nurse who blocked the path of an ambulance, and therefore delayed its journey to help a critical patient, is threatening to sue the emergency services and netizens who criticised her after she complained about the ambulance. The patient later died because the emergency service van did not get there in time. Tal Sulawan, a practical nurse in the…
- Phuket News
Electric vehicles are now available to rent in Phuket, Thailand
Phuket has entered a new era of sustainability by welcoming the island’s first ever rentable 100% electric vehicle (EV). Tourists can rent the Nissan Leaf from SIXT Thailand and cruise around Phuket without producing any harmful emissions at all. SIXT Thailand partnered with InterContinental Phuket Resort on the project, who have installed a series of EV charging stations compatible with…
- Environment News
Thailand’s iconic Maya Bay to temporarily close again
Thailand’s iconic Maya Bay – located on Koh Pi Pi Leh in Krabi province – will be off-limits to tourists for the duration of August and September for another period of environmental restoration. The bay, made famous by “The Beach” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, reopened to tourists on January 1 after a three and a half year closure. All tourist activities…
- Thailand News
UPDATE: Crashed army helicopter gets into another accident in southern Thailand
UPDATE: Crashed army helicopter gets into another accident in southern Thailand The Royal Thai army’s Blackhawk which crashed into a rubber plantation in Songkhla on Friday got into a second accident on the roads in Phatthalung province yesterday. The helicopter wreckage was loaded onto an army trailer which collided with another trailer on the Hat Yai – Phattalung road at…
- Thailand News
Army helicopter crashes in southern Thailand
At around 9am this morning, a Blackhawk army helicopter crashed in a rubber plantation in Songkhla province with seven military personnel inside. The commander of the 4th Army Region sustained serious injuries and six others suffered minor injuries in the crash. No casualties were reported. The Blackhawk took off from Sena Narong Military Camp in Hat Yai district, Songkhla province,…
- South Thailand News
Police search for 3 rogue cops & soldier involved in illegal gun trade
Arrest warrants have been issued for three rogue cops and a soldier for selling illegal firearms to the criminal underworld in the southern province of Phattalung. The Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Thai Police, Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn, reported a huge police investigation is still ongoing to determine the sources of firearms used by the different offenders. In the first…
- Environment News
Dead sea turtle with plastic lodged in its throat washes up on Phuket beach
A dead sea turtle with plastic lodged in its mouth and throat washed up on Mai Khao Beach in Phuket yesterday, July 11. Winai Seh-ew, the village chief of Mai Khao subdistrict in Thalang district, received a call from lifeguards at Mai Khao beach to say a big Hawksbill turtle carcass had washed up on the shore. Upon inspection, the…
- Road deaths
Norwegian man drives into ravine in southern Thailand, 1 killed & 5 injured
A Norwegian man drove his car off a cliff and into a ravine at a viewpoint in Nakhon Si Thammarat province in southern Thailand yesterday. His Thai mother-in-law died from her injuries and 5 more were injured in the crash. Jorn Silva of Norwegian nationality was driving the car and inside were his wife Suwandee Silva, his daughters Natalie and…
- Thailand News
Battle of the Beetles: Man gets rich selling rhinoceros beetles in southern Thailand
Beetle fighting season is almost upon us, and one man from southern Thailand says his rhinoceros beetles are heading straight to the top of the beetle battle championships. Every rainy season in Thailand, male rhinoceros beetles go head to head on a wooden pole. A female beetle is placed underneath, whose scent stimulates the males to fight until one backs…
- Thailand News
Frenchman found dead in luxury villa in Koh Samui, Thailand
The body of a Frenchman was discovered at a luxury pool villa in Koh Samui, off the coast of the southern province of Surat Thani, at 9:30am this morning. Officers from Koh Samui Police Station were called to a detached house in Na Muang subdistrict after a cleaner discovered the body of 45 year old Christophe Cedric Moulinaires lying dead…
- South Thailand News
Suspected insurgents hijack garbage truck, bomb police booth in southern Thailand
In a suspected insurgency attack in Thailand’s “Deep South,” men armed with guns hijacked a garbage truck, tied up four binmen on the roadside, and placed a 50 kilogram explosive inside the vehicle. The assailants drove to a police checkpoint where they detonated the bomb, blowing up the garbage truck and injuring one police officer. The incident happened yesterday evening…
- Thailand News
Giant honey bees swarm home in southern Thailand
A man from Krabi, southern Thailand, was left terrified and thankfully unharmed after tens of thousands of giant honey bees – or Apis dorsata – swarmed his home on Sunday. Thailand’s giant honey bees have been called “the most dangerous stinging insects on earth” by Cornell University apiculturist Roger Morse. Somchai Kaewkasorn, a Department of Highways official, was watching television…
- World News
Malaysian cockfighter sneaks across border and gets shot in southern Thailand
A Malaysian man who illegally crossed over the border into Thailand for a cockfighting match got shot in Sungai Golok, Narathiwat province, last Saturday night. His chicken won the fight, but his luck soon changed when a group of Thai nationals shot him in the hand on his way home. Scared of getting into trouble with the authorities, the injured man…
- Road deaths
Two Indian tourists die in motorbike accident on Koh Samui mountain
Two Indian tourists have died in a motorbike incident yesterday evening on the Thai Gulf island of Koh Samui, southern Thailand. The pair were driving down the Khao Pom mountain on a rented motorbike when they crashed into a barrier on a curved road. The men’s bodies were found on the mountainside. At 6:30pm yesterday, Koh Samui Police Station received…
- Phuket News
On, off, on, off: PM Prayut rips off face mask mid-speech in Phuket
On Monday, just days after the requirement to wear face masks outdoors was re-imposed in Phuket province, Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha dramatically ripped off his face mask mid-speech at a tourism event in Phuket, asking the crowd, “Are you ready?” On June 1, Thailand’s Ministry of Health announced that it was no longer a requirement to wear a mask…
