THAI.NEWS - Thailand Breaking News

It reads like a crime thriller, but this was real-life policing: on the morning of January 8, officers from Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), backed by the Anti Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (ACIB) and in close coordination with South Korean authorities, moved in on a hideout in Pattaya and arrested a Chinese national identified as Xian. He was wanted under an Interpol Red Notice for his alleged role in a transnational call-centre scam ring — and for the far grimmer charge of involvement in the torture and murder of a South Korean student in a neighbouring country. The alleged scam ring, investigators say, was far from the faceless online fraud many imagine. It operated like a compact, violent machine. South Korean nationals were reportedly coaxed or deceived into travelling to the scam base under promises of legitimate work. Once they arrived, their passports were allegedly confiscated, and the newcomers were…

On the afternoon of January 8, Pattaya’s usually sun-drenched skyline was briefly cloaked in thick, ominous smoke as a fast-moving grassland blaze erupted in Bang Lamung district. What began near the community office on Moo 11 in Khao Talo at about 1:30 PM quickly ballooned into a serious incident, prompting a rapid response from firefighters and leaving locals and visitors staring up at a sky full of smoke and questions. The day the wind turned against Pattaya Fire crews from Nong Prue Municipality and Pattaya City answered the call with several engines on scene. Their speedy arrival matters, but the real adversary that afternoon was the weather: strong winds fanned the flames and pushed thick smoke across neighbourhoods, creating a surreal, hazy tableau that settled over parts of the city. By the time crews had the situation under control — roughly an hour after ignition — the blaze had consumed…

When a late-night ride to nowhere becomes the center of a public drama, the sleepy streets of Nonthaburi suddenly feel like the set of a tense soap opera. Thirty-year-old Kedsara Chanthanarot vanished from her home after stepping into a pink taxi — and what began as a missing-person alert quickly turned into a raw, real-life story about alleged domestic abuse, secret marriages and the difficult choices faced by a young mother. The timeline: taxi, silence and a desperate appeal The alarm was raised after Kedsara left her Nonthaburi home late one night in a pink taxi and failed to answer calls from family. Her husband, 44-year-old Kosin Chatlertchai, went public, asking the online community for help to find his wife. Kosin told reporters they had argued before she left and that more than two weeks had passed with no contact. He even tried to trace the taxi on CCTV, but…

Bangkok’s plan to turn every collar into a tiny ID card has hit the pause button. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) announced a one-year postponement of its pet microchipping and household pet-limit rules — moving the enforcement date from January 10, 2026 to January 10, 2027. Governor Chadchart Sittipunt proposed the delay so the city can roll out the program more thoughtfully, and the Bangkok Metropolitan Council approved the change on January 7, 2026. The ordinance — officially the BMA Ordinance on the Control of Keeping or Releasing Animals — is ambitious. It sets limits on how many pets households can keep depending on property size, requires registration, and mandates microchipping: pets must be chipped within 120 days of birth or within 30 days of changing ownership. On paper, it’s a tidy plan to reduce strays and reunite lost pets with owners. In practice, the rules drew pushback from residents,…

A quiet morning in Ban Mae Rahan turned tragic on January 8 when a concrete wall gave way and crushed a 43-year-old man who was resting in a hammock beside his house. The victim, identified as Chainarong, was pronounced dead at the scene in Moo 10, Ban Krang subdistrict, Mueang district, Phitsanulok. Local police, rescue teams and doctors from Naresuan University Hospital rushed to the property after an emergency call, only to find the collapsed portion of a partly wooden, partly concrete home and the hammock-keeper pinned beneath the rubble. The image is painfully ordinary: a fisherman who had returned home at about 7 a.m., tying one end of a hammock to a concrete window frame and the other to a nearby tree, then settling in for a well-deserved rest. What turned that ordinary moment into a catastrophe appears to have been the house itself. According to his father, 59-year-old…

Welcome to your brisk round-up of Thailand and Southeast Asia — equal parts serious, jaw-dropping, and delightfully odd. From microscopic shape-shifters to snow sculptors from Bangkok, here’s what Alex and Jay would say if they were narrating the news with a cup of cha yen in hand. Mutated Flu Strain Sends Cases Climbing — But Don’t Panic Virologists are watching a mutated A H3N2 influenza strain that’s been slipping past shoulders and masks across Thailand. The Ministry of Public Health reported a record number of flu cases last year as H3N2 nudged H1N1 off centre stage. The twist: this mutation appears to lower the current vaccine’s effectiveness at preventing infection, though it hasn’t made the disease more severe. Antiviral treatments still work. Public-health experts are urging people to get vaccinated anyway — vaccines still reduce serious illness and are safe and available. Thailand expects updated Southern Hemisphere vaccine formulations by…

Bangkok’s late-afternoon calm was shattered on January 8 when gunfire erupted at the Nida-Seri Thai Intersection in Bueng Kum district, sending motorists scattering and snarling evening traffic for blocks. What began as a routine red-light stop turned into a chaotic scene that left three people injured — two teenage students and an unsuspecting driver caught in the crossfire. The shooting happened at about 5:30 p.m., right when the evening commute was peaking. According to witnesses and officers from Bueng Kum Police Station, a group of students from a Min Buri technology college — seven friends riding together on three motorcycles — collided with four rival students traveling on two motorcycles at the intersection. Tensions quickly escalated. Police say the rival group suddenly opened fire and then sped away, leaving behind stunned commuters and a traffic jam that stretched in every direction. Medical teams rushed three wounded people to Nopparat Hospital.…

The serene ritual of offering flowers at Bangkok’s City Pillar Shrine turned into an unwelcome hustle for some visitors — until authorities stepped in. On 9 January 2026, the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) Bangkok launched a targeted operation to crack down on rogue street vendors who have been pressuring tourists and worshippers into buying overpriced floral offerings outside the historic shrine. Located along Lak Mueang Road in the Phra Borom Maha Ratchawang district, the Bangkok City Pillar Shrine is a magnet for both locals seeking blessings and international visitors soaking in the capital’s cultural heritage. But recent weeks brought a darker side to the pilgrimage: unauthorised sellers allegedly forcing flowers into people’s hands and then demanding payment — a tactic that sparked an influx of public complaints and dented the area’s reputation. Undercover checks expose an aggressive sales tactic ISOC Bangkok, under the direction of Lt Gen Petchaek Intharathat,…