In the quiet hours before dawn on December 28, 2025, work at one of Bangkok’s most important flood-control projects turned tragic when a 59-year-old construction worker lost his life after slipping and falling into a drainage tunnel excavation. The accident occurred at the Klong Prem Prachakorn drainage tunnel site in Bang Sue district — a major artery intended to link Klong Bang Bua with the Chao Phraya River and help shield parts of the city from seasonal flooding. Police Lieutenant Nitipol Changradom, Deputy Investigator at Bang Pho Police Station, said officers were alerted by an emergency call at about 4:30 a.m. Rescue volunteers, forensic teams and police rushed to the scene near Wat Soi Thong on Pracha Rat Sai 1 Road, where they found the worker’s body at the bottom of the construction area adjacent to the tunnel. The deceased was later identified as Mr. Samai, 59. He was found…
Posts published in “Thailand”
When faith and fraud collide, the headlines get a lot more interesting — and a lot more troubling. On December 27, a long-running scam that read like a criminal thriller finally reached its last chapter when officers from Thailand’s Crime Suppression Division arrested 54-year-old Manop in Moo 1, Thung Krapang Hom subdistrict, Kamphaeng Saen district, Nakhon Pathom province. The arrest — carried out under Criminal Court warrant No. 1472/2019 dated September 24, 2019 — uncovers how a criminal ring exploited religious trust for cold, calculated theft. The disguise that emptied bank accounts According to police reports, the scheme was audacious in its simplicity. A gang allegedly hired Manop to literally become a monk on paper. He shaved his head and eyebrows, slipped into monk’s robes and allowed himself to be photographed as “proof” for fake monk identification documents. Those counterfeit IDs were then used to open replacement bank accounts for…
The scene at Bangkok’s bus terminals on Friday felt a bit like a city-wide game of musical chairs — only with luggage, flip-flops, and a lot more rooster-shaped pillows. Tens of thousands of people poured through the gates as Thailand’s New Year exodus got into full swing, turning platforms into buzzing hubs of farewells, last-minute snack runs, and the occasional sleepy nod on a 30-seat coach. Transport authorities were ready for the rush. Atthawit Rakchamroon, managing director of Transport Co., Ltd. (BKS), warned that December 27 would remain a high-volume travel day as passengers continued to leave Bangkok ahead of New Year 2026. Officials estimated between 100,000 and 120,000 travelers would depart the capital for provincial getaways — beaches, family gatherings, and quiet upcountry retreats — and they planned accordingly. How did they plan? By throwing more buses at the problem. Roughly 6,000 scheduled bus trips — a mix of…
What started as a few seconds of shaky phone footage has snowballed into a full-blown online storm. A video that went viral across X and Instagram appears to show heavy machinery partially demolishing a statue of Lord Vishnu near the Thai–Cambodian border — and within hours hashtags like “Boycott Thailand” and “Boycott Pattaya” were trending among Indian social media users. The statue, according to Indian media reports citing local sources, was erected in 2014 in Cambodia’s An Ses area, roughly 100 meters from the Thai border. The clip’s spread ignited furious reactions from many who interpreted the images as an affront to Hindu religious sentiment. Calls circulated urging Indian tourists to cancel bookings, boycott Thai businesses and apply economic pressure until answers were provided. From viral clip to hashtag rebellion Social media’s outrage moved fast. Within hours the simple act of sharing a two-minute clip escalated into national indignation for…
Thailand’s long, slow unspooling of accountability in the wake of the devastating collapse of the new Office of the Auditor General (OAG) building took a sharp turn on December 26, 2025, when prosecutors accepted police recommendations to indict 23 individuals and corporate entities. The case — born from the tragic March 28, 2025 collapse that cost lives and shook public confidence — has now been forwarded to the Criminal Court, setting the stage for courtroom drama that could reshape how the country builds and governs public projects. From the ground up: what investigators found The official fact-finding committee’s reconstruction of the collapse reads like a forensic engineering thriller, and none of its findings are flattering. The failure began low and fast: the collapse initiated at floors one through four, where investigators determined that earthquake-related shear forces overwhelmed shear walls that simply didn’t meet required engineering standards. In plain terms, the…
In the quiet pre-dawn hours of December 27, a routine drive turned into a scene of devastation on the Chonburi motorway. At 3:10 a.m., near the 91-kilometre marker on the Pattaya-bound lane in Bang Phra, Si Racha district, an orange four-door Nissan pickup rammed into the rear of a stationary 18-wheeler, killing four people and leaving one critically injured. The crash has left a community reeling and prompted renewed warnings about the dangers of drowsy driving on Thailand’s busy highways. The wreckage and the rescue By the time officers from Khao Khiao Highway Police Station and crews from the Pure Yeang Tai Si Racha Foundation arrived, the pickup was little more than a mangled shell. The white Hino trailer, hauling rubberwood bound for a Rayong factory, bore the blunt force of the impact but remained upright. Rescue teams worked under floodlights, their hydraulic cutters hissing as they pried metal apart…
The 2nd Army Region released an update on December 26 detailing a tense day along the Thai–Cambodian border, with the heat of the fighting concentrated in Sisaket province. According to the army, skirmishes flared at multiple points along the frontier, but Thai forces held firm and maintained control of all strategic positions. Troops in neighboring Ubon Ratchathani were also placed along the border, particularly in the Chong Bok and Chong An Ma areas, as commanders pushed to reinforce defensive lines, hasten fortification construction, and clear Cambodian bunkers to stabilize the front. Sisaket: The epicenter of exchanges Sisaket emerged as the flashpoint of the day. The stretch running Sam Tae–Don Tual–Phu Phi–Sattasom–Phnom Prasitthiso–Chong Ta Thao saw frequent supporting fire from Cambodian positions, and Thai units answered with a mix of artillery and drone strikes. While the army reported no full-scale ground assault, it did say a convoy of five Cambodian vehicles…
On December 25, what should have been a day of holiday cheer turned tragic at Doi Jawale in Tak province. A 22-year-old tourist, later identified as Sarocha Wijitpanya from Surat Thani, fell an estimated 200 metres into a ravine at the remote mountain attraction in Tha Song Yang district. The fall proved fatal, and local rescuers faced a grueling, daylight-to-dusk recovery mission because the site sits deep in rugged terrain several hours’ walk from the nearest community. Remote terrain, long trek Word of the accident reached authorities after local porters raised the alarm. Because Doi Jawale is tucked away in a region of jagged cliffs and thick forest, ground teams could not simply drive in. Officials estimated a 6–7 hour trek on foot to reach the scene — a timeline that turned into more than seven exhausting hours as rescuers threaded their way over steep slopes and tricky footholds to…
On December 26, the Thai Pakdee Party dropped a policy bombshell that has Bangkok buzzing: a plan to cancel the 1,000 and 500 baht banknotes nationwide. The proposal, unveiled by party leader Warong Dechgitvigrom on his Facebook page, reads like a plotline from a financial thriller — high-denomination notes vanish overnight to snuff out corruption and choke underground cash flows. Bold? Certainly. Practical? That’s where the debate begins. Warong’s argument is blunt and cinematic: big bills are the oxygen corrupt networks breathe. “Cash in large denominations,” he says, “lets illicit wealth slip through the cracks — stashed in secret rooms, moved via mule accounts, paid out as bribes with no digital trace.” In his telling, digital transactions and asset-based transfers leave forensic breadcrumbs; high-value banknotes do not. Remove those notes, and you shrink the hiding places for ill-gotten gains. He invoked vivid images to make the point: politicians’ houses with…
On December 24, 2023, Hwang Hana—once a familiar name in South Korean tabloids, and the granddaughter of the founder of Namyang Dairy Products—returned to her homeland and surrendered to police, drawing a close to a dramatic chapter that had unfolded across three countries and spilled into headlines for months. The 37-year-old’s troubles began in July 2023 with a police arrest in Seoul’s Gangnam district. Authorities accused her of injecting methamphetamine into two people, and as investigators dug deeper, other alleged drug-related offences surfaced. Instead of staying put to face questioning, Hwang left South Korea in December, touching down in Thailand and, according to media reports, later travelling on to Cambodia. Her departure triggered a swift response from South Korean authorities: her passport was revoked and officials sought international help to locate her. What began as an Interpol Blue Notice to gather information and whereabouts escalated into an Interpol Red Notice…