PHUKET: An electrical fire caused a panicked evacuation from a cinema complex in the heart of Phuket Town last night, but no injuries were reported. Staff at the Coliseum Paradise Mutliplex cinemas at Ocean Shopping Mall noticed smoke billowing from two electrical transformers on a fourth-floor control room at about 7pm.
PHUKET: Foreign diplomats representing at least six countries are to meet Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silpa-archa to address the growing problem of cheats and swindlers targeting Phuket tourists. The news was reported through state news agency the National News Bureau of Thailand. Tourism and Sports Ministry Spokesperson Watchara Kannika announced that EU Ambassador David Lipman, Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Thailand, and the ambassadors of six countries, including Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Finland and the Netherlands, are to meet Mr Chumpol to brainstorm a solution to the increasing problem of tourists being cheated and swindled in Phuket.
PHUKET: A Dutch tourist is out 5,000 baht and a mobile phone after her bag was snatched by a thief in Phuket yesterday. Monika Van Rossum told Chalong Police the theft occurred in the early evening while she and her husband were walking near the PTT service station on Patak Road. “We went out to have dinner.
PHUKET: Phuket Police are investigating the mysterious death of a 27-year-old Nakhon Sri Thammarat man found dead in his pickup truck parked by the side of a road yesterday. The body, identified by police as that of Phumin “Min” Inthongkham, was found at about 6pm in his Nissan NV pickup parked along Rassadanusorn Road, near the entrance to the National Housing Authority project off Soi Kingkaew
PHUKET: Phuket City Police last night raided an apartment building in Chalong, arresting 16 people for gambling on the popular “shrimp-fish” board game and seizing over 400,000 baht in cash. The raid, led by Phuket City Police Deputy Superintendent Serm Kwannimit, caught gamblers off-guard at a makeshift gambling den set up in an eighth-floor room at the Santiphap apartment complex in Chalong Village 1. Raids on gambling dens in Phuket often end with many of the punters scrambling to freedom through pre-planned escape routes, many of them remarkable for their complexity and creativity of design.
PHUKET: A boulder weighing at least one tonne plummeted off a roadside karst near the tourist-popular Ao Nang beach in Krabi this afternoon.
PHUKET: A Thai man accused of stabbing a young British tourist on Phi Phi Island last year pleaded “not guilty” to charges of attempted murder before Krabi Court yesterday. The suspect, 23-year-old Hamed Poonyung, has been
PHUKET: Continuing the series answering questions I hear most often from PC users here in Phuket, I have a very unpopular choice for antivirus (AV) software.
PHUKET: Foreigners in Phuket, both tourists and residents, have developed somewhat of a reputation for complaining over the years. The latest Phuket Gazette readers poll, online now, asks readers: Which of the following topics are you most tired of hearing foreigners in Phuket complain about? And the nominees are: • Overpriced alcohol • Double-pricing (when foreigners pay more than Thais) • Tuk-tuks, taxis • Local driving habits • Immigration requirements • Jet-skis To vote in the poll, click
PHUKET: A pregnant Swedish woman