PHUKET: Police have yet to establish what caused a 27-year-old Iraqi tourist to die after he fell from his jet-ski at Naka Island, off the east coast of Phuket, yesterday afternoon. Mariwan Qader Salim, 27, from Iraq, was pronounced dead by doctors at Thalang Hospital at 5pm, Thalang Police Deputy Superintendent Kitthiphum Thinthalang told the Phuket Gazette. “He was staying at a resort in Patong and went to Koh Naka on a day-trip,” Lt Col Kitthiphum explained.
PHUKET: A lottery ticket seller raised the alarm of a potential backpack bomb outside of a Phuket bank yesterday. However, a police investigation revealed only various female garments, including underwear. “She saw a teenager put several things in the bag and then drop it near the stairs of the Kasikorn Bank branch on Chana-Charoen Road.
PHUKET: Phuket Customs will hear the opinions of representatives from throughout Phuket’s marine industry before deciding whether or not to enforce new regulations that would reduce boat stays in Thailand to two months. The new rules were announced by Phuket Customs Chief Nanthita Sririkub in a meeting at Provincial Hall yesterday
PHUKET: A 49-year-old man was shot dead in his garden at about 1pm today near Koh Keaw Soi 10. Police are now hunting for the shooter, who reportedly fled the scene along with another man in a white Toyota Fortuner. The victim’s wife reported hearing a gun fire three times, before she ran to the garden to find her husband, Echa Yala, dead.
PHUKET: Officials expect the number of Chinese tourists coming to Phuket to drop by 40 per cent this month, despite the fact that Chinese New Year falls on January 31.
PHUKET: Jump into a gorgeous new airplane and get high above Phuket with this year’s PIMEX (Phuket International Boat Show), which opens tomorrow at the Royal Phuket Marina (map
PHUKET: An elephant camp owner charged in October with illegally bringing an elephant into the province has been fined and the elephant returned to its home in Phang Nga. Prasob Jerkae, 37, paid a 5,000-baht fine for bringing an elephant into the province without a permit, Kathu Livestock Acting Chief Jirayu Nirunwiroj told the Phuket Gazette. A tip-off had led livestock officers to Mr Prasob’s elephant camp in Kathu on October 26.
PHUKET: A taxi driver and a tuk-tuk driver yesterday made two tourists very happy by returning over half a million baht and other belongings that had been left behind in their vehicles.
PHUKET: Police are trying to identify a man who died in a high-speed motorbike accident in Koh Kaew, north of Phuket Town, early this morning. Police were called to the scene, near the entrance of the Inizio Koh Kaew housing estate (map
PHUKET: The nationwide Seven Days of Danger road-safety campaign ended at midnight last night with a final tally of five deaths on Phuket’s roads. “Although we could not maintain zero deaths in Phuket during the Seven Days of Danger campaign, we are satisfied with the record for this year,” said Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation-Phuket (DDPM-Phuket) Chief San Jantharawong.