PHUKET: The Royal Thai Navy has launched an air-sea rescue effort to recover the missing crew from Bangladeshi cargo ship MV Hope after the vessel capsized in heavy seas south of Phuket early this morning.
PHUKET: The long tailbacks on Thepkrasattri Road caused by the resurfacing of the bypass road at the Bang Khu Intersection in Koh Kaew has forced police to urge motorists to use alternative routes.
PHUKET: Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut has unveiled six routes being considered for a new underpass to be built at Chalong Circle, by far the busiest junction in the south of the island. The new underpass will need to serve about 53,000 cars per day, accounting for about 60 per cent of all traffic in Muang District, he told the press at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday.
PHUKET: Illegal taxi drivers from Patong today threatened Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut with mass protests if the government does not do more to help them become legal. The naked threat was delivered today at a meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall immediately after the Governor’s monthly address to the Phuket media. “We need help from the governor to find a way to resolve this problem,” said Anan Pluemjit, an illegal taxi driver working from the taxi stand in front of the Hard Rock Cafe in Patong.
PHUKET: A nervous drug suspect brought police back to his kratom dealer’s house after being busted at a Phuket checkpoint. The 19-year-old appeared suspicious to police as he arrived at a checkpoint established at Muang Mai – Pa Khlok Road yesterday
PHUKET: Nearly two dozen Phuket students were rushed to Patong Hospital this morning after they collapsed screaming and convulsing during morning assembly – three out of the nine students who were administered anesthesia by doctors at the hospital remain there. According to reports, the culprit seems to be a ghost in the tourist haven Khao Lak who was offended by a girl putting her sarong in an “inappropriate place”. The students, 21 girls and one boy between 13 and 15 years old, collapsed into their screaming frenzy while at morning assembly at Wat Suwan Khiri Wongwere School (Wat Patong School – map
PHUKET: A Phang Nga police officer has been charged with human trafficking following his reported involvement in a Rohingya woman being held captive and raped repeatedly for days, Kuraburi District Police Superintendent Weerasil Kwanseng confirmed to the Phuket Gazette this morning.
PHUKET: The man accused of repeatedly raping a Rohingya woman he was allegedly to smuggle from a welfare shelter in Phang Nga, north of Phuket, to Malaysia will face rape and abduction charges, police today confirmed to the Phuket Gazette. “We were issued an arrest warrant today that will allow us to take him into custody and proceed with pressing deprivation of liberty and rape charges against him,” said Lt Saner Sumard of the Kuraburi Police. Korlimula Mahamutu, as he is named in Thai on the arrest warrant, is currently being detained in Phang Nga Town as he is already facing charges of human trafficking (story
PHUKET: As children we were told that we were special, unique – exceptional.
PHUKET: Police busted a Burmese drug dealer suspected of operating out of a house across the street from a Phuket school yesterday evening. Staking out a house across from Baan Kata School, Phuket Provincial Police officer Wanchai Palawan and his team waited for Anan Kanyarat, 36, to leave the residence before stopping and searching him. Police found 4.